Eight years have passed since Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6 at E3 2018, and the studio has finally given fans a concrete signal: the majority of its developers are now working on the game. In a roundtable interview this week, Todd Howard confirmed that the majority of developers at the studio are now working on The Elder Scrolls 6.
The shift marks a significant turning point. For years after the 2018 announcement, Bethesda was consumed with completing Starfield, which launched in 2023. Following the announcement that Starfield would arrive on PS5 in April alongside major new updates, the studio is pivoting its focus. That pivot, at last, means Elder Scrolls 6 has become the company's primary project.
Yet Howard also delivered sobering news about expectations. Bethesda has the benefit of having so many millions of people playing its other games that it is actually trying to figure out how to serve those other audiences while making a new one. In other words, the company isn't under pressure to rush. The existing fan bases of Skyrim and Fallout are still active enough that Bethesda can afford to take its time.
The game will use Creation Engine 3, the next iteration of Bethesda's in-house game engine. That represents another technical hurdle cleared in advance. During Starfield's development, the shift from Creation Engine 1 to Creation Engine 2 was a major change, leading to challenges where developers were doing things in tandem with old and new systems. This time, Howard said the team has done a "much better job" on The Elder Scrolls 6 compared to Starfield based on the development tools.
What can fans expect thematically? Howard said Fallout 76 and Starfield are a creative detour from the classic Elder Scrolls style, and as the studio returns to Elder Scrolls 6, it is coming back to that classic style. This will be music to the ears of players who found Starfield's vast but sparse planetary exploration disappointing. The fantasy setting offers something different: there is something very romantic about the Elder Scrolls in the fantasy world that gives a comfort and a sense of a world you feel you can almost step out into.
The real tension here is one Bethesda created for itself. Howard said he now feels "very" cautious about announcing games so early in development, noting that he prefers to compress the moment from when players hear about a game until when they can play it. He has acknowledged multiple times that announcing Elder Scrolls 6 in 2018 was likely a mistake. But Howard also wrestles with the opposing pull: the studio struggles with the balance because its fans want to know.
For now, eight years on from its reveal and 15 years removed from Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls 6 is being actively worked on by the majority of Bethesda. That's the good news. The less encouraging part is that no release window for The Elder Scrolls 6 was mentioned. The studio is committed to getting it right rather than getting it out. Fans who have waited a decade and a half since Skyrim may need to prepare themselves for several more years of anticipation.