The Elder Scrolls

The Elder Scrolls is an American fantasy video game franchise developed by Bethesda Game Studios, beginning with The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994, an open world role playing game set in the fictional continent of Tamriel, whose subsequent main installments, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, have each been set in a different region of the same continent while continuing to develop its lore, deities and history across thousands of years of an internal chronology. The series is particularly associated with its emphasis on open ended, non linear exploration, letting players largely ignore its main storyline in favor of self directed adventuring, and Skyrim, released in 2011, became a defining cultural phenomenon for the franchise, selling more than 60 million copies and remaining a subject of ongoing re releases and jokes about its endurance years after launch. The franchise has also produced the massively multiplayer online spin off The Elder Scrolls Online, launched in 2014, along with novels, a collectible card game and board games drawing on its setting.