The Elder Scrolls 6 — one of the most hotly anticipated video games in the world — won’t be out for some time yet despite being announced over seven years ago, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has said.
In an interview with GQ magazine to celebrate the release of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition, Howard said The Elder Scrolls 6 is “still a long way off.” He added: “I’m preaching patience. I don’t want fans to feel anxious.”
In January this year, The Elder Scrolls 6 announcement became as old as predecessor Skyrim was when The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced. Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011, and The Elder Scrolls 6 reveal on June 10, 2018 came 2,403 days after that. It is now seven years and five months after the announcement, and we’re no closer, it seems, to the release of the game.
When the six year anniversary of The Elder Scrolls 6 announcement arrived in June last year, even Todd Howard paused to say, “oh wow, that has been a while.” The Elder Scrolls 6 is at least in production, with Bethesda confirming it had entered “early development” in August 2023 and “early builds” were available in March 2024.
Now, in the GQ article, Howard has once again admitted that it’s taken too long to get The Elder Scrolls 6 out the door, but did tease an The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered-style shadowdrop — without confirming anything.
“I do like to have a break between them, where it isn’t like a ‘plus one’ sequel,” Howard said of making The Elder Scrolls games again. “I think it’s also good for an audience to have a break — The Elder Scrolls has been too long, let’s be clear. But we wanted to do something new with Starfield. We needed a creative reset.” Bethesda is currently playtesting The Elder Scrolls 6, Howard revealed.
So when will it actually come out? It seems likely at this point that it will be released for Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox console and PC. Will it also be a PS6 game? A cross-gen title perhaps?
“I like to just announce stuff and release it,” Howard continued. “My perfect version — and I’m not saying this is going to happen — is that it’s going to be a while and then, one day, the game will just appear.” The Oblivion Remastered shadowdrop was “a test run,” Howard teased. “It worked out well.”
As for what Bethesda has going on right now, hundreds of people are working on Fallout, Howard said, across Fallout 76 “and some other things we’re doing, but The Elder Scrolls 6 is the everyday thing.”
Last month, it was confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 will include a character designed in memory of a much-missed fan, after a remarkable charity campaign that raised more than $85,000 for Make-A-Wish. Howard revealed that Bethesda has spent some time talking with the group of fans who organized the fundraiser about what they want to see from The Elder Scrolls 6, and commented: “I think we’re aligned.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
