Todd Howard, the director of Fallout 4, mentioned in an interview this past month that the game’s development team started production of the new Fallout game by porting last generation’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to the Xbox One.
The interview with Howard, conducted by Gameinformer, establishes that Bethesda’s development period for the game was long enough that the team lacked the detailed specs for the next generation consoles from the start. They therefore decided to familiarize themselves with the Xbox One’s new specs by porting Skyrim first.
Howard’s statement comes as an offhand fact in the course of the interview, and he immediately follows it up with “Don’t get your hopes up yet.”
We’re stuck with last-gen Lydia carrying our burdens for now.
There are many reasons why Bethesda wouldn’t release the Skyrim port as a remastered edition. The company would need to establish that there’s enough demand to more than make up the costs of publishing it. While Howard mentions that the game was ported, that doesn’t mean that the Skyrim port is polished enough to be published immediately, driving potential costs to do so even higher.
As well, any further development would take away from work on a future Elder Scrolls title, one that many fans are probably keenly awaiting after the rather mixed reception of The Elder Scrolls Online.
But what do you think about this port? Let me know in the comments below!
