Elder Scrolls 6 Update: E3 Reveal Gone Quiet as Wait Stretches On
The next entry in Bethesda’s long-running fantasy saga, The Elder Scrolls 6, was revealed at E3—an event that has since folded and quietly faded away, with its final curtain coming in 2023. That alone tells you how long this has been in the works. Since then, Bethesda has kept fans waiting through years of uncertainty, including that now-iconic, extremely indistinct mountain-range image that seems to spawn yet another round of “how far away is it?” coverage every time someone needs a fresh screenshot. This is that same cycle, just with a new set of numbers.
In a recent Q&A titled “Is Microsoft rethinking Xbox?”, journalist Jason Schreier stated that The Elder Scrolls 6 is at least two to more years off. Put it in a timeline and it gets uncomfortable fast: if the game were to arrive in 2028, it would mean a 17-year gap since Skyrim. That’s almost two decades—long enough that some players who were kids when Bethesda first announced the series’ latest era back then would now be old enough to buy TES6 on release. Yes, “Dovahkiin” origin stories from the early days would literally age into adulthood by then.
And if you’re wondering how that kind of wait changes the outlook for Fallout 5, it’s not exactly a comforting thought.
To be fair, Bethesda hasn’t been completely idle since Skyrim. Fallout 4 and Starfield arrived in the interim. Even Todd Howard has acknowledged that The Elder Scrolls 6 was introduced a bit too early, joking that fans should “just pretend we didn’t announce it.” Still, if Schreier’s account lines up with earlier claims from Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly, then the original reveal will have effectively stretched into a decade-long wait by the time the game finally launches.
Xbox Wants More Elder Scrolls
Microsoft’s latest management push—led by CEO Asha Sharma—has reportedly centered on strengthening the company’s major internal franchises, and The Elder Scrolls is very much in that category. After spending $8 billion to acquire Bethesda, it’s hard to imagine anyone being thrilled that the flagship team’s most visible output has been a somewhat familiar formula: a “Skyrim-style” rehash with Fallout 4 and then Starfield taking on spacefaring duties instead. But Sharma’s approach creates a contradiction: Xbox is asking for more Elder Scrolls, while also dismantling The Elder Scrolls Online team—the studio group that has arguably kept the franchise’s living presence going for the last 15 years, including by “funding other failing projects” inside Bethesda.
Reports indicate that sources are uncertain about how ESO can even “continue to function,” and estimates suggest that “as much as half the development team” has been cut. Sharma may have tried to cushion the blow with an “honest” and “open” blog post, and it’s been said that no studios were formally shut down, but the overall picture is still what you’d expect from a corporate reset: entire teams get broken up, experienced developers who helped define the feel of these games are removed, and the remaining staff are left to stitch everything back together—while everyone else watches, wondering what comes next. With ESO arguably the only steady stream of Elder Scrolls content for more than ten years, its future is suddenly unclear, even as Xbox continues to demand more from the brand.
