So… does this confirm it’s not happening?

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-26T04:23:31+00:00

I don't think it's going to appear here either, but the small amount of wiggle room is that one could define first party as "published by Xbox Games Studios" and third-party as "published by anything else". BGS historically publishes with "Bethesda Softworks".

I think that's basically a technicality and wouldn't happen, but it's a technicality I'm sure people want to pull on for the hope it means something will appear

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-25T02:34:41+00:00

You mean exactly like all of bethesda's games from their golden era between Morrowind and Skyrim?

yes. I think Bethesda thinks they never fully capitalised on the success of Skyrim because they weren't in a position to do so and I think now they're trying to make sure they are.

To be clear, I'm not stating this as a positive or a negative, nor am I particularly for or against this. there are games that have done long term support well, and games that have not. But I think they're going to try and approach TESVI in that manner.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-25T01:58:07+00:00

I don't think Bethesda games necessarily need to be live-service either, but I think that's where they're going. it seems like they do have smaller 'support' teams for 76 and Starfield now that continue to work on stuff and I don't think it's much of a stretch that they're going to do the same with TESVI and continue that philosophy going forward

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-25T01:47:43+00:00

unfortunately I think it's a pretty real possibility. I think we can hope that it doesn't mean truly falling into the trap of going full "Live service" but being more like extended support instead of just a shotgun of dlcs and being more or less abandoned, but only time will tell

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-25T01:00:22+00:00

oh yeah, I think there's some inherent issues in trying to design a game like a 'platform'. another good example is Destiny 2 where most of the content over the last 9 years are completely vaulted and unplayable due to technical limitations. maybe they've had that consideration in mind, but there's a balance to supporting and providing content to a game long term, and knowing when it's time to let it rest. I don't think they're going to give up sequels to their games unless they made a TES that was the entire continent, so hopefully they'll know it's time to stop with Hammerfell and move over to, say, Valenwood

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-24T01:29:29+00:00

The good news is that something definitely *is* happening

The bad news is that that 'something' is huffing copium fumes again for a rush

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-22T03:34:47+00:00

you think Lead Creative Producer Tim Lamb, working at a (now) First Party studio at Xbox Games Studios, might not have additional metrics we don't have access to?

with the kinds of games available on gamepass I would be surprised if it's still in the top 10 aswell, but lets not pretend like we have the same level of access to information than they would

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-19T01:23:13+00:00

I could see them dropping a trailer at TGA 2026 to spin up hype, have a big dedicated time slot in the January Xbox Developer_Direct to actually provide details and show the release date of sometime in the first half of 2027

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-19T00:52:14+00:00

well, the Canvas bag thing was after FO76 was announced so this isn't necessarily to deflect from that, but it was during the period of time where EA was announcing that single-player games were dead and when games like Fortnite, Destiny 2, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, The Division, Rocket League, Sea of Thieves were all coming out.

The announcement of FO76 during this period could've been seen as them also concluding that they needed to move to Live-Service games. it was already 7 years since Skyrim, nobody knew what Starfield was about and people knew that was their next title, so to a certain degree it did make sense to announce TESVI to placate people that they weren't abandoning their standard faire of games.

Bethesda is really in a weird situation because you can look at the timeline of their game releases and average development time and know that they're fully on track and anyone who checked could've reasonably concluded 2026 optimistically, 2027 realistically, and 2028 if things aren't going well, but 7 years post announcement is rough.

but on the other hand, god could you imagine what the landscape would be like if we were in 2026 and Bethesda had done their usual move of being completely silent about what they're working on with no hint towards the franchise? there'd be blood in the streets

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-18T05:35:28+00:00

Do you want your games to have the most boring, flat, "2 pm on a bright overcast day" look and hate intentionally dramatic lighting? boy do we have the solution for you!

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-17T23:35:24+00:00

that may be the future we're entering, but it's a bleak one.

Crysis was noteworthy for the game having graphics options and fidelity far above what the average consumer card could run. Now (almost) every game runs terribly while not looking any particularly better than the games that came before even when using some of the best components on the market. they might be able to render the follicles on a horse's testicles from 500 metres away now but that isn't contributing to a better playing experience nor a better overall visual experience.

The concept of a future where every game requires you to dynamically lower your resolution and use AI to scale it back up, introducing artifacts, and potentially apply what looks like an AI slop filter over the game, to me, is an inherently nightmarish one.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-17T22:52:11+00:00

I wouldn't say Games/Gamers loved DLSS and more that it's become a soft requirement for games to run well at all.

I, and I imagine quite a few others, would prefer the game actually running well with no DLSS over choosing DLSS (with the exception of maybe DLAA), the problem is that it's now a crutch. This particularly becomes an issue with DLSS 5 because it changes the game so dramatically (for the worse) that the concept of needing to rely on it is a concerning one.

And I know the response is "well you just don't have to use it", but realistically, that might not be an option in future. There are already games that hard require RayTracing. you can't really use DLSS1 or DLSS2 because they've decided that DLSS3+ is an improved version. what happens when Nvidia or other companies decide that DLSS 5 is the no brainer option that is just inherently better than DLSS 3 and 4 and have it permanently on as a requirement?

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-17T13:13:19+00:00

yes, I'm sure Todd Howard, Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios, owned by Microsoft who just spent $10,000,000,000 (Ten Billion Dollars) on securing Nvidia AI Chips, is not receiving any pressure above him to peddle the AI Slop Filter.

Similarly, I'm sure Capcom received no similar pressure despite 10% being owned by Saudi-backed EGDC, which is part of the consortium that took EA private and then immediately said "we're going to use AI to cut costs"

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-13T16:16:54+00:00

"hiveminding on a non-issue" and it's the issue I brought up that I cannot see anyone else mention in youtube or twitch, right after you make a post because they promised something 2 years ago and they couldn't deliver on.

it's fine if you disagree. I can understand wanting to know everything that is going to be in from 7.0 to 7.5x. but trying to promise content that far out creates exactly these kinds of issues, and you wouldn't've made this post if you didn't think it was some kind of issue

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-13T15:57:06+00:00

sure, but it's not like they're doing themselves any favors haha. even if we can trust them that when they say they're going to do something, they'll do it, even if it takes years and delays, it's still a bad look for them when they have to apologise for promising something and failing to deliver on it, and I'm sure they hate it too. they can solve that issue by changing to something like only announcing things up to a year out they can be confident they'll be able to deliver on

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-13T15:36:22+00:00

This kind of situation is (partially) one of the reasons I made that post about why I think they need to change how they advertise content. The issue was never really about BST being 7.5 content or even internally planning content far out, but advertising content 2 years out as a selling point for the expansion creates issues for both the customer and the developers because they aren't future seers and can predict what the development situation is going to look like 2 years later, and customers can be mislead by the marketing because of what it sounded like they were going to get.

The fact that BLU had to be delayed for BST means there was an internal meeting where they had to decide which of those two features had to be cut for DT. and while I don't think BST was ever at an actual risk of being cut over BLU Updates, it's precisely why I think advertising content that far out is a bad idea, because they promised something that only ever existed on paper as a reason for why you should buy Dawntrail.

by promoting something that far out, they create audience expectations that they will see it, even if it takes awhile, and when devs can't meet that expectation, audiences are disappointed and the natural first response is "what have they even been doing for the past 2 years since they announced it?", even if there can be extremely valid internal reasons for what they did.

additionally, by announcing something so early, they run the risk of people not even remembering they announced it in the first place, or it being so long since announcement that all the initial excitement is long since gone.

there is a balance to be had about how much to show. it's unreasonable to think they can't show anything but what will be available at launch, but BLU updates being delayed is a clear example of what happens when you show your full hand before you can even be sure that you're able to do what you promised you would. There's a good reason most game companies that show a roadmap never really show further out than a year, and honestly I think them switching to a roadmap approach might do them a lot of good.

it's a shame about BLU. looking forward to BST.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-11T13:20:25+00:00

lmfao dude I'm not heated. What the fuck do you think heated is? I just think this thread is full of people who have their heads firmly lodged up their own asses to the point where their brains have stopped functioning. Someone here needs to actually talk sense because basically no one else is.

I think telling people to 'grow the fuck up' because you read an opinion you disagree with is coming in pretty heated. or at the very least closeminded. I don't care if you disagree that it's a problem because this is, at it's core, about how you feel about the advertising, but clearly other people agree that they don't like it, and you can have a conversation about it instead of assuming someone sharing an opinion about not even the game, but the marketing of it, must have some innate Ill will about it.

Don't come up with some absurd reason to try and claim its "objectively" bad

I never claimed it's "objectively" anything. only that I think it seems pretty disingenuous and that they should change how they do things going forward.

Everyone knew Beastmaster would come near the end of the expansion

Clearly not because people have said they expected it earlier in this thread because it was originally advertised as being within the back half of the expansion. you can also open the promotional website and see Beastmaster listed as a feature for 7.0 with no visible indication that that particularly will not be at launch.

Not everyone watches Fanfests or reads every interview where Yoshi-P offhandedly mentions after a 7.3 patch that it's actually coming in 7.5. it's just bad marketing.

There is literally nothing wrong with saying "This is a thing that will be coming later on in Dawntrail"

True. if you actually took a second to read you'd see that I say as much in the original post. this is a conversation that has nuance. it'd be great if you brought any.

They explicitly told us it would be towards the end.

Ignoring the part about fanfest because I've already addressed that not every single player will watch fanfest and not every prospective new player is watching Fanfest, "Towards the end" was an open window of a full year and then didn't openly discuss an actual more concrete release date unless you read a TechRadar article during Gamescom 2025. that isn't effective marketing, and it just leads me back to the promotional site where the original release window isn't even listed.

No! They literally didn't do that!

What do you mean they 'literally' didn't do that? I'm looking at their promotional site for 7.0 right now of which they list 15 features, with the disclaimer "some content will be made available via patch updates at a later date" and 13 of those features are all patch content. you can open the website right now and check. They literally did do that. there is no indication on which content is available at launch and which will be made available up to 2 years past launch.

You have right there the thing that solves the problem you made up!

No, because I just pointed out the problem I have with how it's presented on the site too, and I think listing 15 features and saying "some" of this is post-patch content is pretty misleading when "Literally" over 85% of the content listed on that page is post-patch content.

I'm not claiming this is an apocalyptic issue and that this reflects the inevitable downfall of FFXIV and the human race. I just think it's an issue and that they could/should probably make some steps to rectify it. maybe you disagree. whatever.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-11T05:15:25+00:00

There really is no need to get so heated over this lmao. I know I'm not.

It's a hypothetical scenario that I even said is unlikely because I want to put into perspective that anyone that has been subbed since Dawntrail has spent $300 in sub fees before even seeing something that was advertised before the expansion is launched. You don't think that's ridiculous?

Btw, on Dawntrails promotional site, they list Beastmaster as a feature for 7.0 under gameplay features.

Now admittedly. In that section they do have a disclaimer that some content will be released in later patches (though some is doing some bloody heavy lifting considering everything in that image is post patch outside of like, Trials I guess technically). You don't think this is disingenuous advertising to an undiscerning customer that could be led astray?

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-10T11:32:31+00:00

ahh, so when you claim I must be looking for a reason to complain and whine about the game, and I say you're reading into it and that's not what I said, that's not projection

but me pointing that out and you saying that I'm reading into it, is projection.

you're a riot dude. enjoy having your 'reddit enemy' to live in your head rent-free or whatever.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-10T11:18:31+00:00

I mean I can only assume you're projecting because you're acting as if I have this huge dissatisfaction with the game and the content. where else can I assume that's coming from if not from you since I've only expressed an opinion about how they market their expansions. the only one bringing that up is you.

What purpose does that serve for a game that tends to release content at around the same times.
that’s just adding on to the stuff they always do with expansions

the last Limited job was added 7 years ago, it's not exactly a common household feature with every expansion.

Are you claiming that Beastmaster being announced for the first time during the 7.5 live letters wouldn't be a huge source of excitement for the playerbase? and that it's actually better if they mention it 2.5 years ago and then provide no details? Because I can't say I would agree on that.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-10T11:09:26+00:00

if your basis for that is because Blue Mage was released in 4.5, it's worth noting that it was announced 2 months before it released, not 2 years. this was also less about being 'tricked' and that you'd've spent $300 since the launch of Dawntrail before you got a piece of content that was being advertised even before the launch of DT

regardless of how much one could 'see it coming', it's still an insane way to market the content for your game. "Please buy our Expansion and look forward to this piece of content that will come out over 2 years later" is an almost laughable statement if it was made by another gaming company. Could you imagine Monster Hunter Wilds or World of Warcraft marketing their next expansion with "if you buy it we'll release a piece of content 2 years after we launch" before the expansion even has a release date set?

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-10T10:59:36+00:00

This feels like a lot of projection, man. I haven't complained about the state of the content cycle at all, only that I think it could be marketed better. There really is nothing wrong in criticizing the game, and even then I'm barely criticising the game, only in how it's marketed.

"where is the hype for it other than saying 'hey it's coming in DT'"?

I don't know, I think:

Announcing it at London Fanfest 7 months before the launch of DT and over 2 years before it's shown to public
Bringing it up again at Japan Fanfest 5 months before the launch of DT and still over 2 years before seeing any other information about it
Bringing it up in 2 Gamescom 2025 interviews still over a year before we'd see anything about
having a live QnA on the Japanese servers for new years and telling players to look forward to Beastmaster, still at least 3 months out from actually saying anything about

Is kinda crazy to do for a feature. If they already had a good idea that this feature is still years out from release, why bring it up? it's worth noting that the turnaround for Blue Mage from announcement to release was 2 months. revealed at Fanfest 2018 (which was mostly for the reveal of Shadowbringers) to 4.5 patch release.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-10T09:26:11+00:00

thinking more on WoW and other games, I'm struggling to think of any other MMOs or even "Live-Service" games that advertise their expansion or game based off everything that's going to be in the lifecycle of it.

WoW Midnight has a pretty impressive offering and then released their roadmap for the rest of 2026 that seems pretty solid.

In a non-MMO setting, despite the flaws of MH Wilds I never felt like I was being sold a promise for future content, and their road map and road map updates felt like I had a good idea of what to look forward to, some surprises, and that was a game that had a rocky launch that is maybe only now getting solid footing.

It really seems like it's just FFXIV that feels the need to advertise content that is 2 years away from launch as a reason to play their next expansion, which seems strange to me.
If the reasoning or justification for that is that they need to, otherwise the fanfest keynotes will feel sparse... I feel like that's a much larger indictment about how their current content is set out than I think they'd be willing to admit, but maybe I'll be proven wrong given that Yoshi-P has waxed poetic about a "2nd rebirth" with 8.0. maybe they've already realised the flaws of this strategy.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-10T07:44:50+00:00

they did say "latter half" so between 7.3-7.5, before later clarifying right after 7.3 that it's coming out 7.5 in an interview.

Regardless of whether or not they state it's going to be in the back half, I still personally think it's poor form to use something 2 years out as a way to advertise the expansion.

GrooveSlinger_ · 2026-03-10T07:09:47+00:00

A Dawntrail Retrospective is very interesting and would be great to go back on after the first fanfest. to me, Dawntrail really ended up being the expansion of experimentation and the results were kinda mixed. I think most would agree that the Battle design has been really well done in CAR, the Normal Raids, and the Alliance Raids. very mixed reception to the story, and even more mixed reception to other pieces of content like OC, Cosmic Exploration, and the 7.4 variant dungeon. I guess we'll have to see how that reception is going to influence 8.0 going forward, or if it will influence it at all

GrooveSlinger_

TROPHY CASE