While the majority of console Skyrim players are waiting for Bethesda to finally announce their DLC plans for the game, a huge new rumor is doing the rounds. One of the reasons why Bethesda may be taking their time on DLC, is that they could be secretly working on an Elder Scrolls MMO project.

You may be thinking, where an earth has this come from? But actually, this little gem of a rumor appears to have been the subject of Chinese whispers since the days of Morrowind.

A new report has got everyone talking over the last 24 hours though, as an article published by Tom’s Guide claims that an Elder Scrolls MMO is indeed a reality, and that Bethesda will be unveiling it officially at E3 2012 and Quakecon this year. Details are minimum at the moment as you can imagine, but they have revealed that the alleged MMO will take place ‘a millenium’ before the events of Skyrim and hundreds of years before any Elder Scrolls game that has released.

There is even some initial details on potential classes, as an ‘anonymous industry source’ has told Tom’s Guide that the game will feature three playable factions, with the logos of each faction meant to represent a dragon, lion and a bird of prey – interesting.

It goes without saying that if done right, this game has the potential to be the mother of all MMO games – aka Skyrim on steroids. Many Skyrim players have been crying out for some sort of multiplayer mode to be added to the game, but a full blown MMO with never ending progression whilst sticking to the same core gameplay and combat mechanics – you can essentially kiss goodbye to whatever social life you have if this game comes out.

Obviously there are barriers to overcome with an Elder Scrolls MMO – most notably the subscription platform that Bethesda will have to implement. What would be a fair price for an online Elder Scrolls experience with other players? A lot of players would pay a handsome sum for this functionality, so Bethesda must be licking their lips at the prospect of being able to monetize the game at last.

Holding up DLC? What are your initial thoughts of an Elder Scrolls MMO? Could this be the reason why DLC has taken so long to come out for Skyrim? Bethesda recently gave everyone a great preview of some of the content that could be coming, but more support really needs to come now on console, especially since PC players are in dream world at the moment with the creation kit. We’ll be going into greater detail on the possibility of an Elder Scrolls MMO soon, but in the meantime we just hope that this bombshell is confirmed in May first.