The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC Interview

Kotaku has a short but dense in content interview with Bethesda’s Todd Howard on the subject of the company’s DLC plans for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Todd reiterates that the DLC will feel “closer to an expansion pack”, and as a result less DLCs will be released with bigger time gaps in between compared to Fallout 3’s, but also explains that the company is looking to release free pieces of smaller content such as the high-resolution texture pack in between these releases:

“With Fallout 3, it was, ‘Ten dollars is the sweet spot for us and we know we want to put out five of them. And we had overlapping teams. We were coming off Fallout 3 and right back in.” He describes that development cycle as “a real hardcore loop,” but adds, “we just think we can do better content if we approach it a different way.”

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“Because that gap is going to be bigger, we want to put litle things out for free in between. We’ve already done that for PC with the high-res pack. We’re trying to figure out what those things are.”

On top of that, Bethesda is planning to explore some of the additions they’ve showcased in their “Game Jam 2011” video:

“There are definitely things in there that we are planning on exploring,” he said.

“It looks like a ton of stuff that could ship right now,” he admitted, “but it’s in a sizzle video. It’s, you know, it’s not bug-tested, polished, balanced.” He thinks it shows off the creativity of his team and says that some of it is being worked on, but don’t take that as the blueprint for the expansions.

Of course, he couldn’t resist teasing more: “That wasn’t all of it. It’s probably 60% of it. The other 40% doesn’t show as well in a video or we didn’t have good footage.”