24 Years Ago Today, Bethesda Changed Open World RPG Video Games Forever, Releasing 'The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind'

In recent years, the video game industry has had a trend of focusing on longer, player-driven experiences over shorter, tightly designed packages. Games like Assassin's Creed Shadows, Crimson Desert, and Dragon's Dogma 2. That trend, though, might have actually begun over two decades ago with the release of one of the greatest open-world RPGs of all time.

Today, May 1, is the 24th anniversary of the release of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, a game that would put Bethesda's name on the map as an open-world game developer and usher in a new era of player choice and customization in video games. While it's certainly not the first open-world game, it is the one that many players and critics look to for the early blueprints of what would come for these massive video game projects in the future.

Morrowind, like a few other games in The Elder Scrolls series, begins with the player-created character being imprisoned. After making a character and leaving the tutorial area, players are free to go virtually anywhere and do anything they wish whenever they want.

While that concept is commonplace in 2026, it was quite rare in 2002, with most games focusing on smaller experiences. Morrowind stood out from the crowd, and in doing so, would pioneer an era of Bethesda role-playing as a towering juggernaut in the industry.

According to Metacritic, the original PC release of the game is sitting at a metascore of 89. Critics praised the game's openness, variety of content, customization, and scope, while some felt the game's bugs and glitches created a feeling of general lack of polish--something that become a frequent point of contention with Bethesda releases in the years that followed.

Since Morrowind's release, Bethesda has released The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, both of which have been re-released several times across console generations. A built-from-the-ground-up remake of Oblivion was released early last year, too.

The future of the series is both clear and mysterious: The Elder Scrolls 6 is in active development and has been for years, but there is no sign of it coming anytime soon. For now, fans may want to take a nostalgic trip back to Morrowind.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 7:26 PM.