--- description: Very bad things happening spectacularly. title: 8 Minutes of Ridiculously Beautiful The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Footage image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 8 Minutes of Ridiculously Beautiful The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Footage by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 29, 2014 6:41 PM CUT by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 29, 2014 6:41 PM CUT I’m cringing watching this easily Blizzard- or Square Enix-worthy new trailer for Bethesda’s _The Elder Scrolls Online_. Not because it’s bad — it’s a deftly rendered slice of CGI. But it must have cost a fortune. It makes me want to say “Spend the money on knocking the game out of the park, please, not the frippery, Bethesda.” But oh what frippery. The video’s subtitle, “The Arrival,” presumably refers to the game’s big bad, Molag Bal, who’s trying to suck the world into his demon realm, because I guess that’s what demon princes do. In the broody vignette, class-representative characters posture dourly while Cthulhuian whatchamacallits descend from on high and quaver in the background. There’s a “Me? You lookin’ at me? You wanna piece of this?” stare-down, followed by the good guys getting spectacularly owned (because _demon prince_). We know how events turn out, of course, because _TESO_ takes place eight centuries before _Morrowind_. But as they say, journey not destination. Fingers crossed the former measures up when the game rolls out on April 4 for Windows and OS X (followed by PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2460/8-minutes-of-ridiculously-beautiful-the-elder-scrolls-online-cinematic-footage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2460/8-minutes-of-ridiculously-beautiful-the-elder-scrolls-online-cinematic-footage/"},"headline":"8 Minutes of Ridiculously Beautiful The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Footage","datePublished":"2014-01-29T18:41:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:32.411Z","description":"Very bad things happening spectacularly.","url":"https://time.com/2460/8-minutes-of-ridiculously-beautiful-the-elder-scrolls-online-cinematic-footage/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","Apps & Web","Web Video","mmo","Gaming & Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2460/8-minutes-of-ridiculously-beautiful-the-elder-scrolls-online-cinematic-footage/","name":"8 Minutes of Ridiculously Beautiful The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Footage"}}]}] ```