Elder Scrolls Online boss reckons “very few people” would play a Morrowind-style open world nowadays, as teams need to “support” two kinds of players

As gamers become more accustomed to having their open worlds littered with map markers, checklists, breadcrumbs leading up to objectives, and a host of other convenient options, a Morrowind-style game has become somewhat unfeasible to make for a large studio, according to ZeniMax Online boss and Elder Scrolls Online director Matt Firor.

Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun in a great piece about the how to save the open world, Firor suggests that if a company released a game like Morrowind nowadays – a game that’s devoid of a GPS-style guide and makes players find quests with nuggets of information like “‘go to the third tree on the right and walk 50 paces'” – then “no one would play it… very few people would play it, so now you need to give them hints and clues.”