‘It’s good to think of Elder Scrolls 6 as still in a design phase’, says Todd Howard

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has said The Elder Scrolls 6 is still in the relatively early planning stages, suggesting its release is some years away.

The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced at E3 2018 with a brief teaser trailer which confirmed that the sequel was in pre-production at Bethesda Game Studios.

However, another Bethesda title, Starfield, was also announced at E3 2018 and is ahead of the fantasy game in the company’s release pipeline.

Howard, who oversees development of the long-running RPG series and is directing Starfield, recently told The Telegraph that the next Elder Scrolls game will benefit from the development work the studio’s currently doing on the sci-fi title, which is scheduled to release in November 2022 for platforms which support Xbox Game Pass.

“The [new Starfield] technology, Creation Engine 2, is sort of built for both [games],” he said. “It’s like a new tech base. The vast majority of our development work is on Starfield right now but everybody works on everything so the projects kind of intertwine.

“It’s good to think of The Elder Scrolls 6 as still being in a design [phase]… but we’re checking the tech: ‘Is this going to handle the things we want to do in that game?’ Every game will have some new suites of technology so Elder Scrolls 6 will have some additions on to Creation Engine 2 that that game is going to require.”

In May 2020, Bethesda’s SVP of global marketing, Pete Hines, suggested that fans were unlikely to hear about The Elder Scrolls 6 until work on Starfield was completed.

Hines tweeted: “It’s after Starfield, which you pretty much know nothing about. So if you’re coming at me for details now and not years from now, I’m failing to properly manage your expectations.”

Howard previously said Starfield will feature Bethesda’s biggest engine overhaul since 2006’s Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

In a blog post discussing Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda in March, Howard said the sci-fi RPG would feature “all new technologies” that will eventually power The Elder Scrolls 6 too.

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“With each new console cycle, we evolved together,” Howard said of Bethesda and Xbox. “From bringing mods to consoles with Fallout 4, now over a billion downloads, to the latest technologies fueling Xbox Series X/S.

“These new systems are optimized for the vast worlds we love to create, with generational leaps not just in graphics, but CPU and data streaming as well. It’s led to our largest engine overhaul since Oblivion, with all new technologies powering our first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, as well as The Elder Scrolls VI.”