The Elder Scrolls: Blades June 2019 Development Update
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Earlier this month, during E3 2019, Bethesda released a fairly major content update for The Elder Scrolls: Blades and announced that the game will be making its way over to Nintendo Switch later this year. As a result, this here development update goes over the latest additions to Blades and lets us know what to expect from this mobile title in the near future. Have a look:
At Bethesda’s E3 showcase earlier this month, we announced – and dropped – our biggest update yet.
This update features exciting new content, such as a fearsome dragon questline, customizable jewelry to craft or buy, NPC voice-over for characters you see in town and on major quests, solo Arena battle jobs, and so much more.
Many of these updates were inspired directly by you – which is especially meaningful for Lead Producer Veronique Bruneau. “Being able to continue to polish the game – more specifically the main quest where we added VO and cutscenes to many of the quests – and having the opportunity to act on all the feedback we are getting from players in the community are my favorite parts of the update,” she says.
The community has also been asking for more ways to personalize their experience, which Producer Alexandre Phaneuf took to heart. “My favorite part of this update is the inclusion of jewelry,” he says. “It brings a lot of customizability to the game and pushes the power level of those abilities further then we could before. The community always has great ideas.” Producer Artour Goldenberg couldn’t agree more. “I love the passion of the community,” he says. “Whether the feedback is positive or negative we appreciate it because it means that people care. We are reading it and constantly trying to improve the game for the players out there. There’s no doubt that we make mistakes but we work hard every day to make the game better for everyone.”
Also included are changes and adjustments mentioned in May’s Blades Town Hall, including rebalancing Abyss difficulty at all levels and making sure Skulls more accurately represent how tough a quest or job will be. The team worked on balancing out the Town as well. “Rebalancing the entire Town ingredients and prestige for both existing and brand-new players was a big challenge for the economy designers,” Goldenberg says. “Overall, I think it was a much-needed change to get players to build up their town faster and then focus on customizing and making it unique to them. As always, we will be listening to feedback and looking out for how this rebalance changes town interactions.”
DRAGON & UNICORNS
Of course, a full new questline is easily the biggest addition to Blades so far.
“The new quest line allowed us to add more content and more story for the players to discover… and it involves Dragons,” Bruneau smiles.
And the storytelling goes beyond the quest itself. “I love hearing the new voices,” says Producer Nathan McDyer. “It helps add so much life and highlights the personalities of the characters in the game. We had a lot of fun bringing new stories and lore to the massive world of Elder Scrolls through the new quests and duels.”
Keep an eye for some Easter eggs as well. “There is a fun callback to a Daedric quest from Oblivion with one of the new decorations,” McDyer says.
But the all-time favorite edition to Blades? For Goldenberg, that’s easy: “Definitely the unicorn statue!”
Whatever your favorite might be, it’s a massive update. Lead Programmer Vincent Belanger is especially proud of the “sheer amount of content” that was added. “It’s our first ‘content patch,’ so it set a milestone into our development cycle,” he says.
PVP AND… SWITCHBLADES!
So, what’s next for The Elder Scrolls: Blades? You may have heard about our huge PvP update coming this fall. This update will open up the Arena for multiple rounds of 1v1 battles against friends and foes. (Don’t worry, you’ll be able to switch up your armor and weapons in between rounds.) This update will also allow you to visit your friends’ towns, join guilds, and even engage in proper duels with your guildmates.
Also coming this fall: Blades will be available as a free download on Nintendo Switch. Even better, your game progress from playing on your favorite mobile device will carry over (and back) with the game on Switch.
