ZeniMax has delayed The Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion DLC reveal event due to the US presidential inauguration, citing safety concerns.
The DLC, which was teased back in December at The Game Awards 2020, has been hyped by fans for a while. ZeniMax had previously listed 9am AEDT on Friday, 22 January as the reveal date for Gates of Oblivion, but have now delayed it due to real-life events.
The reveal has now been pushed back to 9am AEDT on Wednesday, 27 January to avoid clashing with the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden. Rather than this being ZeniMax wanting as much airtime as possible, the Maryland-based company has cited safety concerns as the reasoning behind this decision.
In response to a comment on the Twitter announcement, it wrote:
“Given recent events, we are opting to play it safe. We have players all over the world, but the majority of our employees live and work near the capital.”
ZeniMax Online Studios, who develop The Elder Scrolls Online, is located in Hunt Valley, Maryland which is about an hour from Washington D.C. Its parent company, ZeniMax Media, is located in Rockville, Maryland which is about half an hour from the US capital city.
Due to Inauguration Day in the United States falling on Jan. 20, we are moving our Global Reveal Event for Gates of Oblivion from Thursday, Jan. 21 to Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 5pm EST/10pm GMT. Thank you for your support and we will see you soon! Details here: https://t.co/hXtzmeCpNe pic.twitter.com/qcy7NIHVmS
— The Elder Scrolls Online (@TESOnline) January 13, 2021
Given recent events, we are opting to play it safe. We have players all over the world, but the majority of our employees live and work near the capital.
— The Elder Scrolls Online (@TESOnline) January 13, 2021
The mention of “recent events” of course refers to the US Capitol riots by supporters of outgoing US President Donald Trump, which resulted in five dead and extensive property damage. Improvised explosive devices were also found and later defused. Consequently, Trump has stuffed the stat sheet by becoming the first (and hopefully only) US president to be impeached twice.
Tensions are high across the US, with the FBI issuing a warning for all 50 state capitals, warning of further armed protests. According to a report from the Associated Press, about 21,000 members of the National Guard have been deployed to Washington who have access to lethal force. It appears that ZeniMax is taking into account that shit could hit the fan before, during, or after the swearing-in of Biden.
Weirdly enough, The Elder Scrolls is not the only ZeniMax property that has been caught up in the latest round of US political drama. During the storming of the US Capitol, one of the participants was spotted with a tattoo from the Dishonored game series. Alt-right Twitter tried to paint the mark as a secret Antifa symbol to feed into the conspiracy theory that the attack was a false flag operation by the left, but this was debunked by series co-creator Harvey Smith.
It is unknown if any Trump supporters are also Elder Scrolls fans, though it can be assumed that they can’t read subtext in the first place.
