In just a few short hours, the E3 conferences begin and as we’ve all seen these can be the biggest moments of the expo and often influence the nature of the industry for the coming year and even further. In the past, these conferences have also made significant impact on who lost in the coming year as a lack of hype for certain companies made others look even greater by comparison.

The one given for this E3 above all else is that Nintendo doesn’t have anything big to reveal. While they will probably be making announcements from the show floor and through Nintendo Direct and shoving off various new games, potentially including new details on the upcoming Wii U Smash Brothers, they actually are not going to have a Nintendo Press Conference. After two years of lackluster results pushing the Wii U to the mainstream media through E3 press, Nintendo is backing off hopefully to reevaluate where the console stands in the market and figure out a way to focus back on their core audience they lost with the Wii.

Since Oblivion, fans of the Elder Scroll series have asked for a multiplayer component to the game. Unlike linear experiences with tightly driven storylines which resulted in forced multiplayer arena experiences like that of Bioshock 2, the world of the Elder Scrolls lends itself to a more open multiplayer format. Players have already seen from their companions during quests that it sometimes helps to have someone watching your back when a dragon comes down from the sky or bandits surround you from both sides in a tight cave.

This past week, Bethesda Softworks announced that multiplayer is finally coming to the Elder Scrolls world, but not in the way many people expected. While there had been strong rumblings of a Fallout MMO, Bethesda has revealed that they have been working on an Elder Scrolls Online game. Instead of just focusing on individual regions like Skyrim or Cyrodiil, the entirety of Tamriel will be at players’ disposal. Players will have the option to join three warring factions, each vying for control of Tamriel and represented by either a lion, a dragon or a bird of prey.

In addition to the PvP focus of the Elder Scrolls Online, the game’s story will take place a thousand years before the events of Skyrim with one of the Daedric Princes, Molag Bal appearing as the main enemy for all factions to deal with.

Not much else has been revealed yet about the Elder Scrolls Online thus far but check out the trailer after the jump and, as always, stick to The Flickcast for all your gaming news.