Saw this over at Enworld.
The Realms WILL Be Updated!
WotC's Chris Perkins and Mike Mearls both mentioned the possibility of Forgotten Realms updates on Twitter today. A chap called Montgomery Headstrom tweeted at both of them - to Perkins he said "I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?" and the Mearls he said "if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?" Both replied to his his comments, confirming that they do, in fact, intend to update the Realms. Thanks to Adrian for the scoop.
Montgomery: if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?
Mike Mearls: who sez we aren't interested in updating it?
Montgomery: I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?
Chris Perkins: The Sundering allowed us to bring back things that the setting had lost over the years. We ARE updating the Realms.
Perkins hinted as much in that interview. That doesn't mean we're going to get a new hardcover campaign setting book, though, especially since Perkins also said they wanted to try new things and surprise people.
Also, you might want to *update* the thread title.
Hey, I was looking for the upload. 
The Realms will be updated:
as they were in 4e . . .
as they were in 3e . . .
as they were in 2e.
Why is this news to anyone?
If this is news to you, you might want to brace yourself, because the sun is going to come up tomorrow. 
Ellistraee's return would be a blissful event for my future drow characters. If she keeps her brother's portfolio, she will be a badass song and dance goddess.
XunValDorl_of_HouseKilsek wrote:
Technically ToD and PotA are updating the realms so their statement is already fullfilled
Mirtek wrote:
The answers, unfortunately, weren't what I expected but I did try.
I think edwin_su is on to something with the CRPG tie-in sourcebook. Remember that's what they did with Neverwinter MMO too....
They ARE updating it with adventure modules. That doesnt mean we are going to get a source book anytime soon.
I find this all interesting and correct, they are updating the realms but in a peice by peice micro view. Instead of a grand view point in a FR campaign guide book they have marginalized the realms as a whole and focused with PC interaction in shaping the realms bit by bit. It reminds me a bit of D&D in a dungon, the DM covers the dungon parts you have not been through only letting see where you are and where you havebeen! This applies to how the Realms are unfolding each season. Unfortunately many people ain't down with this approach.
If they are going for a piecemeal approach...that's fine for how a player might discover campaign information.
That's a frustrating way for DMs to have to sort through it.
Storyteller-Zero wrote:
We know that there is a Forgotten Realms "Bible" that the adventure writers for Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Elemental Evil were given by WotC, so there is something out there.
Also 3e and 4e were "spoiled" for the Realms, prior to 3e most of the Realms was unknown and released "piecemeal" as supplements came out describing a new region every so often. The boxed sets only gave a very general overview and highlighted a few major locations. By the end of 2e though we had a lot of detail about all of Faerun, Kara-Tur, Maztica, and even some other areas (a bit of Chult, some of Al-Qadim and the Hordelands). This made 3e and 4e Realms much faster to put out material for. Yes they could do the fast approach for 5e as well but I think they realized most seem to prefer flexibility in their campaigns and having everything defined makes it feel restrictive. Also between the 4e Spellplague and the 5e Sundering the Realms have undergone some major upheavals that require redoing a large section of the Realms (unlike the Time of Troubles for 3e that only shifted the gods around some for the most part).
For those who want the Realms in a complete view there's plenty of material out there already; products from both TSR and WotC, or from wikis and other sits for free. Since 5e is meant to be more generic other than the published adventures (HotDQ defaults to a post-Spellplague Sword Coast with the references to rebuilding Neverwinter) the Realms in 5e is timeless and it's up to the DM who chooses to use it what time to put it in. If they want it post-Sundering (aka "modern day") they'll have to wait for more official material or modify the 4e information with what's already known from the novels and published 5e adventures and other materials that contain bits of lore throughout.
I think based on some of the past statements from WotC that the latter approach is the most likely to occur. They have stated they felt the Realms was too "settled" and too much information made it hard for DMs to make it their own. This was one of the problems I had with Dragonlance, or Star Wars settings, the party sort of gets relegated to b-team status in the larger scale of the campaign due to the canon out there. Sure I'd love more information on what the Sundering has done ot the Realms but once I'm done with the Tyranny of Dragons I'll probably never run a game in the Realms again. For me the information is just because I've loved the Realms as a source of inspiration and stories.
Grazel wrote:
Nozareem wrote:
As a note, there shouldn't be too much change other than things directly impacted by the Sundering itself and its immediate after effects (the destruction of Myth Drannor and Shade Enclave, the fall of the kingdom of Many-Arrows, etc), because we've only advanced less than 20 years from the 4E timeline.
That's true that only 20 years or so have past, I'm betting though WOTC will take into account the AL seasons as well and novels, so in all it maybe more closer to 100 years before the FRCG comes out and several more seasons worth of AL interaction in shaping the Realms.