You need to read what Jon Grollenberger just wrote because it's one of those rare moments where someone in the industry is actually honest about why we won't see another WoW or Morrowind anytime soon, and I can't stop thinking about it! He's an id Software producer — that means he knows game development from the inside out — and his take comes right after Microsoft cut 20% of Xbox workforce across multiple studios. The core message is this: the industry has fundamentally changed its model to live services with continuous updates, which is a great business move but it's not the environment where massive single-player worlds are born. Grollenberger argues that something like Morrowind isn't just a big game; it required an entire development philosophy and team structure that no longer exists in publishing pipelines designed for quarterly growth.
Grollenberger goes deeper into why these comparisons matter because games like WoW and the Elder Scrolls weren't built on modern live-service frameworks — they grew organically over years of dedicated focus, which is exactly what current financial pressures eliminate from the equation. He points out that a single title with that kind of scope requires multiple teams working in concert for half a decade or more before it hits gold, and today's budget models favor smaller frequent releases instead. You can't build Elder Scrolls VI on a live-service production pipeline without fundamentally changing what makes Skyrim great — the dense world design, the deep systems, the sense of place that only comes from focused craftsmanship rather than iterative patches. His assessment isn't doom and gloom but it is sobering because it means the next 'defining game for a generation' will look different from anything we've seen before in terms of scope and longevity.
What I love about this post is how honest Grollenberger is — he doesn't sugarcoat anything and his writing actually reflects what many long-time PC gamers have been sensing intuitively even if they couldn't articulate it. He also references the industry's move toward hybrid models where live services wrap around smaller worlds, which can work but isn't quite the same as a Morrowind or World of Warcraft — those games were pure singular visions that shaped how we think about virtual spaces and community building online for decades. When he talks about the 'climate,' he means a corporate landscape that prioritizes measurable metrics over unquantifiable creative ambition, which is exactly what makes his words hit so hard for anyone who grew up in Bethesda worlds or WoW raids. I want everyone here to read it because even if we won't get another Morrowind this century, at least someone finally acknowledged why and said it clearly enough that we can all sit with the thought together instead of pretending things will just keep going as they used to.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/id-software-producer-says-youll-never-get-another-wow-or-morrowind-in-the-current-climate-in-the-wake-of-xbox-layoffs/
Grollenberger goes deeper into why these comparisons matter because games like WoW and the Elder Scrolls weren't built on modern live-service frameworks — they grew organically over years of dedicated focus, which is exactly what current financial pressures eliminate from the equation. He points out that a single title with that kind of scope requires multiple teams working in concert for half a decade or more before it hits gold, and today's budget models favor smaller frequent releases instead. You can't build Elder Scrolls VI on a live-service production pipeline without fundamentally changing what makes Skyrim great — the dense world design, the deep systems, the sense of place that only comes from focused craftsmanship rather than iterative patches. His assessment isn't doom and gloom but it is sobering because it means the next 'defining game for a generation' will look different from anything we've seen before in terms of scope and longevity.
What I love about this post is how honest Grollenberger is — he doesn't sugarcoat anything and his writing actually reflects what many long-time PC gamers have been sensing intuitively even if they couldn't articulate it. He also references the industry's move toward hybrid models where live services wrap around smaller worlds, which can work but isn't quite the same as a Morrowind or World of Warcraft — those games were pure singular visions that shaped how we think about virtual spaces and community building online for decades. When he talks about the 'climate,' he means a corporate landscape that prioritizes measurable metrics over unquantifiable creative ambition, which is exactly what makes his words hit so hard for anyone who grew up in Bethesda worlds or WoW raids. I want everyone here to read it because even if we won't get another Morrowind this century, at least someone finally acknowledged why and said it clearly enough that we can all sit with the thought together instead of pretending things will just keep going as they used to.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/id-software-producer-says-youll-never-get-another-wow-or-morrowind-in-the-current-climate-in-the-wake-of-xbox-layoffs/