Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax working on new engine and AAA IP

Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios working on new engine and AAA IP
(Image credit: ZeniMax Online Studios)

ZeniMax Online Studios is currently working on an entirely new engine for an upcoming AAA IP it's developing.

ZeniMax Online Studios is best known for creating the ongoing MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online. As much as I would love an ESO 2 with a completely overhauled engine, it doesn't sound like that's what we'll be getting.

What is ZeniMax Online Studios working on?

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ZeniMax Online Studios lead graphics engineer Alex Tardif stated on Twitter that there's "Not much to say about this yet, but it's been so much fun creating a brand new engine. With how rare this kind of thing is nowadays, I feel fortunate to be at this studio while we invest heavily in our own technology."

Tardif was quote-tweeting the confirmation announced by Xbox, but funnily enough, this information was already revealed back in 2019. An interview with Official Xbox Magazine (June 2019, issue 177) uncovered by Fextralife already revealed the studio's plans to create a new engine and IP. 

The Elder Scrolls Online game director Matt Firor stated, "Yeah. Not a lot of people have picked up on this, but if you look on our job site you'll see that we are accepting applications for people to work on a new engine for a new triple-A game. So yes, we have ideas, but we're committed to ESO for as long as it takes."

It's good to hear that ESO will be serviced until the company is done developing its new engine, but how long will ESO last? Hopefully, ZeniMax keeps the servers around at the very least. I suspect it has a few more years considering the developers are porting the game over to next-gen consoles.

Rami Tabari
Editor

Rami Tabari is an Editor for Laptop Mag. He reviews every shape and form of a laptop as well as all sorts of cool tech. You can find him sitting at his desk surrounded by a hoarder's dream of laptops, and when he navigates his way out to civilization, you can catch him watching really bad anime or playing some kind of painfully difficult game. He’s the best at every game and he just doesn’t lose. That’s why you’ll occasionally catch his byline attached to the latest Souls-like challenge.