Bethesda Softworks

For Immediate Release

Bethesda Softworks™ Announces The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind™

Details Finally Released on the Next Chapter of the Award-Winning Elder Scrolls Series

March 30, 2000 (Rockville, MD) -- Bethesda Softworks today officially announced The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, the next title in its epic, award-winning RPG series and a game destined to redefine the genre by presenting the most detailed virtual world ever created. Four years have passed since the release of the last epic computer role-playing game set in the rich fantasy universe of The Elder Scrolls. Now, the acclaimed series that includes Arena (1994 RPG of the year) and Daggerfall™ (1996 RPG of the year) is poised to take the gaming world by storm again.

Morrowind is an epic, open-ended single-player game where you create and play any kind of character you can imagine. Be the noble hero embarking on an epic quest, or an insidious thief rising to leadership of his guild. Be a malevolent sorcerer developing the ultimate spell of destruction, or a reverent healer searching for the cure to a plague. Your actions define your character, and your gameplay changes and evolves in response to your actions. Confront the assassins' guild, and they take out a contract on you. Impress them, and they try to recruit you instead. No two sagas are the same in the world of Morrowind.

"We know it's been a long time coming," said Todd Howard, Project Leader for Morrowind. "It's the most ambitious game we've ever done, and not something we go into lightly. The scope of this game is staggering, both in terms of the game world and the technology behind it. Having been down this road before, we know how long it takes to get it right."

With Morrowind, the unparalleled Elder Scrolls character system is coupled with an exponential increase in the world's richness of detail and level of visual splendor. Utilizing the latest in 3D technology, Morrowind will feature hyper-realistic textures and polygon counts, continuous levels of polygon detail, real-time shadows, vast landscapes, skeletal based animation, and the most complete weather system ever seen in a computer game.

"Both previous chapters of The Elder Scrolls series were tremendously successful and each won RPG of the Year," said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. "With that in mind, we knew the next chapter would have to be spectacular in order to maintain that level of success. There's no question that what the game is going to accomplish will have a profound impact on role-playing games, both now and in the future."

Already a year in development, Morrowind is expected to ship later in the year 2001, for Windows PCs. It will require one of the latest 3D accelerators on the market today, but is designed to push the boundaries of future video cards.

Bethesda Softworks, Morrowind, Daggerfall, and "The Elder Scrolls" are registered trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. All rights reserved. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.