'Elder Scrolls Anthology' Collects Two Decades Of Open-World RPGs In One Collection

by Joseph Leray

QuakeCon 2013 started in Dallas yesterday, and Bethesda wasted no time in dropping a big announcement: the "Elder Scrolls Anthology" is coming to PC next month.

For a modest $79.99, the anthology comes with every numbered "Elder Scrolls" game and their official expansions and downloadable content. Here's the run down:

The Elder Scrolls Arena
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Tribunal
- Bloodmoon
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Knights of the Nine
- Shivering Isles
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Dawnguard
- Hearthfire
- Dragonborn

That's a lot of gaming history in one package, tracing a line from 1994's "Arena" to 2012's "Skyrim." Also included are five physical maps of Tamriel -- the continent on which most of the "Elder Scrolls" games take place -- including the regions of Iliac Bay, Morrowind, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim.

There are a few games not included in the anthology, though: "An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire" and "The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard" were a duo late-90's action-RPGs that were spun off during "Daggerfall" development, and the "Elder Scrolls Travels" series -- including "Stormhold," "Dawnstar," and "Shadowkey" -- were developed for old mobile devices, like the short-lived Nokia N-Gage.

As you can see from the pack shots below, the "Elder Scrolls Anthology" comes on nine discs, and our press release doesn't mention anything about redeemable digital codes, either. This probably isn't a problem for most "Elder Scrolls" fans, but good luck playing these games via Boot Camp on a relatively recent iMac -- those things don't have disc drives. It's not unheard of to build a custom PC without an optical drive, either.

If you have a Windows and a DVD tray, though, the "Elder Scrolls Anthology" hits brick-and-mortar shelves on September 10 for $79.99.