'Elder Scrolls Online' turns popular role-playing game into an MMO

Elder Scrolls Online unveiled

The Elder Scrolls Online is a massively multiplayer online game based in the early days of the Elder Scrolls universe. It was unveiled today by Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Online Studios over on Game Informer and in an accompanying press release.

The Elder Scrolls Online will be the first Elder Scrolls game that allows players to explore the fantasy world with others. Featured on the upcoming magazine's June cover, The Elder Scrolls Online will include three playable factions and takes place a millennium before Skyrim. Due out next year on both PC and Mac, the Hero Engine-powered game will have players fighting against the daedric prince Molag Bal who is trying to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.

"We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted," said Matt Firor, game director of The Elder Scrolls Online, in a prepared statement. "It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."

Firor has spent the last two decades working in online game development, including Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot.

The game's solo questing, public dungeons and player-driven PvP will all be detailed in 12 pages of content in the upcoming June issue of Game Informer, set to hit stands and subscriber mailboxes this month. PvP, the mag reports, pits the game's three factions against one another in open-world warfare "over the province of Cyrodiil and the Emperor's throne itself."

We can also expect to hear much more about the upcoming massively multiplayer online game at E3 and Quakecon 2012, most likely.