Hardly anyone has to be as patient as The Elder Scrolls fans. The next installment in the series still doesn’t have a release date, let alone a proper trailer. But at least there’s a small sign of life now.
Bethesda is celebrating several anniversaries this year: Bethesda Softworks was founded 40 years ago, and Skyrim was released nearly 15 years ago. And then there’s a more unpleasant date: Exactly 8 years ago, on June 11, 2018, the first teaser forThe Elder Scrolls 6was shown.
After that, nothing happened. You can count on one hand how many times Bethesda has mentioned the Skyrim sequel since then. To this day, there are no new trailers, concrete details, or even a release date. The Elder Scrolls 6 would soon achieve the mythical status of Half-Life 3 if it hadn’t already been officially announced. But for its eighth anniversary, there is at least a small sign of life.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is still coming
Ahead of this year’s Summer Game Fest, fans once again had their hopes up for a reveal of The Elder Scrolls 6– and were disappointed. In an interviewVarietyis now asking Xbox head Matt Booty how he handles fan expectations. Here’s how Booty responds:
I’d say one of the biggest challenges in a job like mine is balancing the desire to show the world all the cool things you’re working on right now with the desire to get people excited early on—but we also know that we want to wait for the right moment. And when you decide to show it, it should be the best you have to offer. And when you show the game, you’re also making a promise to people: Hey, it’s coming soon.
So I can tell you this: I was at Bethesda, sat down with Todd [Howard], and watched Elder Scrolls being played—it looks fantastic and development is going well. And we’ll make sure we announce it at the right time and truly unveil it.
Sigh. So once again, we’re not learning anything new. The only thing Booty really reveals is that development on The Elder Scrolls 6 is going well. But someone from Xbox’s executive suite would hardly say anything else on camera, would they?
At least: The Xbox boss seems to see things similarly to Todd Howard and doesn’t want too much time to pass between reveal and release. So if The Elder Scrolls 6 is shown at some point, it might be just a few months until release, similar to Fallout 4. A surprise drop like with Oblivion Remastered, on the other hand, is rather unlikely.
But how far along is the development of The Elder Scrolls 6 by now?
There are few clues on this: In August 2023, Bethesda confirmed that pre-production was complete and actual development had begun. Early builds of the game already existed in 2024. It was only this year that Todd Howard reported that a new version of the Creation Engine would be used for the Skyrim sequel.
Bethesda is definitely working flat out on the new Elder Scrolls, while a smaller part of the development team is still busy with Starfield. Currently, 2028 is considered a likely release year, but we’ll probably be in the dark for quite a while yet.
