The Elder Scrolls: Blades Brings the RPG Franchise to Mobile, Consoles, and PC

Bethesda Games Studios decided that it wanted to do its own "one last thing" in the style of Apple press conferences. The new game is The Elder Scrolls: Blades, and it's a full Elder Scrolls experience coming to mobile devices first.

Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard called Blades a "massive first-person RPG with console-quality graphics," but stressed that the game was built for mobile experiences. Combat has been designed to be played using the touchscreen, and the entire game can actually be played in Portrait Mode on your phone.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades has three different modes of play. First up is the Abyss, a roguelike experience tasking players to see how far they can go in an endless dungeon. Arena is a PVP mode pitting your character against other player's adventurers. And finally there's The Town, billed as the core experience. Your hero return home to find your town razed to the ground. It's up to you to rebuild your hometown. As it levels up and gets bigger, you'll add new buildings and recruit new NPCs, who in turn will give you new quests.

"We are going to bring Blades to every device we can," said Howard on stage, including mobile devices, consoles, and even virtual reality. And all versions will be connected, letting you move your experience from mobile to console and back again.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades is coming this Fall as a free-to-play title. It's available for pre-order tonight on Apple App Store and Google Play Store.