Bethesda Softworks will bring its popular Elder Scrolls series of single-player RPGs online next year. The Elder Scrolls Online, developed by Zenimax Online, will be the first multiplayer version for the critically-acclaimed and commercially successful franchise since its debut 18 years ago. The series' last release, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, was one of the biggest releases in 2011, and had shipped more than 10 million copies around the world before the end of the year. Previous Elder Scrolls games were developed by Bethesda Softworks, a subsidiary of Zenimax Online's parent company Zenimax. Set up in 2007 in Hunt Valley, Maryland as an MMO-focused studio, Zenimax Online is headed by Matt Firor, co-founder of Dark Age of Camelot developer Mythic Entertainment (now BioWare Mythic). This will be Zenimax Online's first release. The game explores a new period in Elder Scrolls' history, and is set a millennium before the events of Skyrim, according to a report from Game Informer. Bethesda Softworks will publish The Elder Scrolls Online in North America, Europe, and Japan next year for Windows and Macintosh-based PCs.