Today, many know The Elder Scrolls and have been eagerly awaiting TES VI, but the franchise could have "ended" at the very beginning of its journey. The sales launch of TES: Arena was very poor.
One of the creators of The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Ted Peterson, shared his memories of the project's launch. The first problems began even before the game's release: stores pre-ordered a certain number of copies of the game, and Bethesda then decided to postpone the launch. After this, stores began to cancel orders.
When The Elder Scrolls: Arena was finally released, the game's sales figures were very low. The developer noted that the expansion for the game Terminator, "Terminator 2029," sold better than Arena:
Stores ordered a certain number of copies, but when we couldn't release the game on time, they started canceling their orders. To give you an idea of how badly things went: the first game I ever worked on was the Terminator 2029 expansion – it required owning the original game to play. Well, in the early days, this DLC sold more copies than Arena.
However, the developer explains, The Elder Scrolls: Arena was helped by word of mouth. Information about the game began to spread thanks to players – they told other people about Arena, and the audience gradually expanded:
But we were lucky: word of mouth worked, people started playing and enjoying the game. In many ways, it was a catastrophe, but somehow it was what started a billion-dollar franchise.
Now Bethesda is developing The Elder Scrolls VI. The game does not have a specific release date or release window.