Christopher Weaver

It's easy to forget now, but the first Elder Scrolls game had a rough launch back in the day: 'It was a disaster in a lot of ways and somehow built a billion-dollar franchise'

The first Elder Scrolls game, Arena, had a difficult launch in 1994, with low initial sales and store cancellations. Despite these challenges and Bethesda's prior reputation for sports titles, word-of-mouth and player enjoyment helped it eventually build into a billion-dollar franchise.