ZeniMax Online Studios may not be one of the studios most often mentioned in the conversation about Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media, but it perhaps deserves to be. The team behind The Elder Scrolls Online has been incredibly consistent in providing updates and expansions for the MMO. Not only that, but ZeniMax Online is also working on a new AAA game believed to be an MMO. While virtually no information about the MMO has been announced, details about the game's engine may have slipped out via some recent job listings.
A new job listing at ZeniMax Online Studios has gone up for a World Builder, an art-focused position that will help work on 3D world spaces including terrain, lighting, and props. The job listing specifically references ZeniMax Online's unannounced AAA new IP as the project they'll be working on, too. Given that ZeniMax Online is mid-development, it's understandably asking for experience with certain applications. These include the 3D animation app Houdini, PhotoShop, and most surprisingly, Unreal Engine.
Going back to 2019 when ZeniMax Online studio director Matt Firor first confirmed the development of the new IP, he says something interesting about the game's engine. Firor says at the time that ZeniMax Online is currently accepting engines to work on a "new engine" for this new game. The Elder Scrolls Online notably is built on an engine made from scratch by ZeniMax Online. As such, it was believed the ZeniMax Online game would be, too.
This new job listing, however, implies that ZeniMax Online may have made a shift in its engine choice. Unreal Engine 5 is an increasingly popular choice by game developers given its widespread use, allowing new hires to more quickly adapt to a studio's needs.
Of course, just because a World Builder job listing asks for familiarity with Unreal doesn't necessarily imply that ZeniMax Online is using it for its next game. Nor does it mean ZeniMax Online has switched its engine since 2019. It's possible that ZeniMax Online's in-house engine uses tools that are similar to Unreal or that the studio wants recruits to have a certain type of game development experience.
It's still very exciting to consider all the different possibilities regarding what ZeniMax Online is working on. Its new game is believed to be an MMO based on job listings over the past six months, which likely means it's still some time away from release. ZeniMax Online is content to continue releasing big updates for The Elder Scrolls Online in the meantime. Yet there's clearly something very exciting worth looking forward to in the years to come.
The Elder Scrolls Online is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.