Bethesda Game Studios shocked everyone today with the release of a new game in their hit Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls: Castles on Android devices.
Apparently inspired by their mobile hit Fallout Shelter, The Elder Scrolls: Castles takes the core of that game and adds some twists to fit the concept of a ruling dynasty and the Elder Scrolls universe. Beyond setting up your castle to run as you want, as a ruler you will make a number of decisions that impact your fiefdom. Decisions are somewhat like Reigns, where you pick between a couple of options and are given some immediate feedback on the reaction to that decision by others.
Like in Fallout Shelter, you'll get to decide what is in each room, with the game using a card-like interface to make it easy to differentiate between different options. In our limited ability to look at the game, there didn't appear to be any 'card game'' mechanics, and this is just a UI appearance essentially. Like in Fallout Shelter, you assign people to work in rooms for a period of time, with timers running down how long it takes to get the product of effect of that room.
Not everyone is able to get this title right now. It doesn't appear to be on iPhone at all, and several of our staff were unable to find the game on the Google Play store, as it appears to be in a limited soft launch. There isn't anything on Bethesda's website either, leaving us to glean what we can from a brief description on the Play Store, some screenshots, and one staff member's brief playtime. Based on screenshots though we can see that there is combat, and quests, further fitting with what was added to Fallout Shelter over time.
This would seem to be part of a broad push towards mobile by Microsoft, who has said that a major reason behind the Activision Blizzard purchase was to bolster their mobile gaming strength. While the fight to close that acquisition continues with the FTC, for now, Microsoft has it's own studios amping up the mobile production it seems.
At the moment only some regions and devices seem to be able to download this game so if you're not able to now then you'll likely be able to in the future.
