By 2011, Bethesda had established itself as an RPG studio with reach well beyond the genre's historic niche, and the then-upcoming launch of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was hotly anticipated. There was just one problem: it was launching the same week as Modern Warfare 3, and nobody believed the fantasy RPG would live past the competition.
"Oh, Skyrim can't survive going up against Call of Duty," former Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines, speaking in an interview with DBLTAP, recalls being told. "Same window. Everybody's gonna play Call of Duty. Nobody's gonna buy your game. I just said, 'I get that they're a big brand, but they're not a better game. I will go up against those guys. I will spend [marketing money] against those guys. I will never spend anywhere near as much and I can still win.'"
