Skyrim Redguard DLC Rumor

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season has finally come to a close -- both evidenced by and punctuated with Steam's holiday sale, which is re-wrapping itself for next season. Gamers everywhere have a lot to look forward to in the new year, and Bethesda Softworks seems eager not to disappoint. After the flurry of updates and downloadable content that has been made available for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in the past few short months, the award-winning studio appears to have more of their epic story to tell.

Right on the heels of Dragonborn's success (and impending release on PS3 and PC, if all goes well) comes another round of information and speculation. It has recently been discovered that Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax has been extending the trademark for one "Redguard," listed by the company as a "downloadable computer game software," and has been since March of 2011 -- with the most recent being August of last year. As ZeniMax has not filed a Statement of Use for this title, the trademark will lapse next month unless another extension is made.

While fans of the series will surely be overjoyed at the possible announcement of another Skyrim DLC, dancing around the idea this close to the alleged unveiling of the dubbed "Xbox 720" could be a misstep. As Bethesda is not a developer known to overlook the inevitability of progress, it might make more sense that "Redguard" be a future-generation title -- maybe even completely separate from the Skyrim universe. But of course, this is all pure speculation.

Curiously enough, with all the subtle talk of the Redguard in Skyrim itself, it would make sense to lend a little more attention Hammerfell's way. Fans of the series' lore will know that within Hammerfell is the city-state of Dragonstar, which was besieged by Skyrim over 200 years before the events in the game. The city is now split between Hammerfell's rule in the west, and Skyrim's in the east -- certainly leaving some room for more story to be told in the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls saga.

A third, albeit more questionable option remains, as "Redguard" could be hinting towards a remake of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, released for PC back in 1998, though this seems very unlikely. What do you think, Ranters? Are you ready to once again take the icy plunge into speculation, or are you simply too busy with Dragonborn and previous Skyrim DLC?

The Dragonborn DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released on December 4th for Xbox 360, and is expected to release early this year for PS3 and PC. No word yet on what will become of the "Redguard" trademark, but rest assured Game Rant will report on it when we find out.

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Source: USPTO [via Official Xbox Magazine]