Although Bethesda first dropped official word that The Elder Scrolls 6, the highly-anticipated follow up to its defining open-world RPG Skyrim, was in development as far back as five years ago, it seems we’re going to be waiting at least that long again to actually get the game in our hands.
Speaking to courts as part of the ongoing Microsoft vs The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) trial, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked about platform exclusivity for Bethesda releases with the Microsoft-exclusive Starfield on the horizon and The Elder Scrolls 6 still to come.
“With Elder Scrolls VI, it’s so far out–it’s hard to understand what platforms it will even be at this point,” Spencer responded. “It’s the same team that’s finishing Starfield, which comes out this September. So we’re talking about a game that’s like five-plus years away.”
That length of time would absolutely put The Elder Scrolls 6 into the frame of time that Microsoft similarly proposed to courts in the FTC case as when it expects the next generation of console hardware to launch – around 2028 – so it would make sense that Bethesda’s platform plans are still very much up in the air, and for a game that’s barely begun development.
Skyrim may have endured as a game that fans continue to play to this day after being released nearly 12 years ago, but The Elder Scrolls 6 may endure just as long as a work-in-progress, with Bethesda no doubt hoping to craft something just as lasting. For what it’s worth, Bethesda’s Todd Howard already claimed last year that the studio’s next game after The Elder Scrolls 6 would be Fallout 5, so it’s looking like fans of that series are going to be waiting quite some time.
Bethesda’s next enormous RPG and its first original IP in decades, Starfield, is just around the corner though and releasing this September 6th. You can pre-order it at the below:
