A book blurb on the Waterstone's retail site reads "A novel that takes places forty-five years after the Oblivion Crisis, which is the story of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion game and the expansion pack Shivering Isles. It partly bridges the gap for the next game, which is set 200 years after the Oblivion crisis."

So, assuming "the next game" in Oblivion continuity isn't a ZeniMax Online massively multiplayer online game, this might be a hint at an Elder Scrolls V. Although, to hear Bethesda's Pete Hines tell it, that's the natural conclusion anybody could draw from how well The Elder Scrolls IV sold.

Well spotted, Silver!

P.S. Yes, I read The Age of Unreason series. When I was a kid. So Keyes' Star Wars work is how I think of him and I consider it a compliment.

Greg Keyes is perhaps best known for his steampunk series The Age of Unreason, which features historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Isaac Newton, neither of which will be appearing in The Infernal City. The novel takes place four decades after Oblivion, telling the story of a group of unlikely heroes banding together to unravel the secret behind the floating city of Umbriel, which leaves undeath in its wake. It sounds like your standard fantasy romp, but Keyes does some pretty fabulous things when shaping characters, so we can probably expect a great deal of personality at the very least. All I know is it's about time we got some officially sanctioned Elder Scrolls fiction to tide us over between games.

The Infernal City is due out on November 24th from Del Rey, and can now be preordered at Amazon.com.

Pre-Order The Infernal City [Bethesda Blog]

The developer's Pete Hines posted a statement on the Bethesda Blog today, clarifying Howard's comments regarding the future of the Elder Scrolls series.

That was not a direct quote from him. That was someone's interpretation of what he said. I know, I was there. At his QuakeCon talk he was asked when TESV is coming out and Todd replied, "Don't look for a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future." He also went on to say how much the franchise means to us and that it definitely will continue. He just wasn't going to provide any timeframe on "when." This should not be news to anyone that has been paying attention. Both Todd and I have said repeatedly that, of course, we're going to do another Elder Scrolls game. The last one was enormously popular. So was the one before that. You get the idea. So do we.

In other words, the fate of the series isn't in question, and it shouldn't be.

Hines goes on in his post to clarify statements Howard made about an Elder Scrolls MMO, pointing out that neither Todd nor anyone on Todd's team worked on MMOs, and when the studio that does work on them - ZeniMax Online - is ready to show what they are creating, they'll show it.

I am trying to imagine an angry Pete Hines here, and it terrifies me. Just believe the man and move on before anyone gets hurt.

Clarifying About Next Elder Scrolls game, MMO, etc. [Bethesda Blog]

In an interview with industry site GamesIndustry, Bethesda Europe's Sean Brennan questioned whether there's a market for 18-year-old-and-up Wii titles. "Is there space in the Wii market for that? I think there is, but again, it' all about finding out how big that is," said Brennan. "Is it 5 percent? If it's five per cent of the market and you can own that space it's worth doing because you can achieve volume." For Bethesda, if you can't own that 5 percent, it's not worth doing.

That being stated, Bethesda is announcing a Wii game sometime this year. Like we previously mentioned, a really big Wii game. According to Brennan, "We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year, we've got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it's a format we're really looking at with the right approach."

"We're not going to establish a new range and call if 'My Girly Game Range' or whatever these other companies are doing, it's so me-too and boring," Brennan added. A "My Girly Game Range" from Bethesda too boring? No, Sean, we think you mean, too awesome.

Bethesda's Sean Brennan Part Two [GamesIndustry]

Despite spending much of their time in London last week talking about Fallout, Rogue Warrior and WET, Bethesda's Pete Hines couldn't help but bring up the role-playing game as well.

"We're not talking about the next Elder Scrolls, but that doesn't mean we're not doing anything with the franchise," Hines said.

What they're doing is working with Del Rey Books on a new series of novels based on the video game series.

Penned by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes, the novels will be original stories based in The Elder Scrolls universe, Hines said. The first novel, The Infernal City, will be published this fall.

The Infernal City is set after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and finds the citizens of Tamriel facing an uncertain future.

"Floating high above the land is a strange and mysterious city that is casting a horrifying shadow – wherever it falls, people die and rise again as undead. It is up to an unlikely duo – a seventeen-year-old girl named Annaig and the Emperor's young son, Prince Attrebus – to rescue the kingdom from doom."

Keyes wrote the Age of Unreason Tetrology, three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels and the Kingdom of Thorn and Bone.

Hines said that Bethesda has already been given the first half of the first novel's manuscript. And that Keyes is working with Bruce Nesmith and Kurt Kuhlmann, both of whom worked on The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall back in the day and on Oblivion.

"We felt this was a good opportunity for us to do something with a great new author," Hines said.

"We've been big fans of Greg's work for a long time, and we're thrilled he agreed to bring his talents to The Elder Scrolls. We see these books as a natural extension of the franchise and think fans will love the stories and characters Greg has created."

In fact, the infamous "Horse Armor" download for Oblivion, released in April of 2006, ranked ninth on the top ten downloadable content packs as of whenever Bethesda decided to stop counting. The good news for fans of dressing their horsies is that, according to Bethesda's Ashley Cheng, the pretty little suits of equine armor continue to sell daily.

For the full list, read on.

1. Wizard’s Tower
2. Thieves Den
3. Mehrunes Razor
4. Spell Tomes
5. Vile Lair
6. The Orrery
7. Knights of the Nine
8. Shivering Isles
9. Horse Armor
10. Fighter’s Stronghold

Why is "Fighter's Stronghold" dead last? Cheng notes that the list ranks purchased downloads. It was, at certain points, given away as a free download.

Top Oblivion DLC on Xbox Live, Lifetime [BethBlog via EndSights]

"At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010," said Oughton. "At the moment we're not that interested in the Wii. We're going to stick to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. We'll continue to pursue three or four titles a year and go for big titles," he said of the company's publishing plans for the future.

Aw, poor little Nintendo Wii. No Elder Scrolls or Fallout love for you. And here I was hoping to use the balance board to control my alignment. Oh well.

Bethesda pencils in new Elder Scrolls title for 2010 [GamesIndustry.biz]

I guess they don't count the Knights of the Nine content as an expansion proper. Still, I think we can all absorb this knowledge comforted in the fact (okay, speculation) that Bethesda is hard at work on The Elder Scrolls V. Michael McWhertor

No more expansion for Oblivion... [OXM]

IGN: Did you ever think about including SIXAXIS motion support?

Pete Hines: We didn't think about doing anything with the SIXAXIS stuff. We just wanted to make sure it played well and doing something new with the SIXAXIS just wasn't even necessary. Obviously if we ever have a game that would work well with the SIXAXIS then we would consider using it... but that wasn't an option for Oblivion.

IGN: What do you think about SIXAXIS?

Pete Hines: I think that its value depends upon the game. It didn't make sense on Oblivion but I'm sure there are some games it does make sense on. To be honest I would rather have the rumble instead of the SIXAXIS motion stuff.

Hines also added "when you're playing Oblivion it's nice to feel the weapons connecting with an opponent, so the absence of the rumble is notable when playing Elder Scrolls." Hey, you're not the only one, Pete. That does sound nice. Michael McWhertor

Bethesda Enters PS3 Oblivion [IGN via Max Console]

Panogames: Oblivion [via Slashdot]