Bethesda made headlines at E3 2018 when it confirmed The Elder Scrolls 6. However, the actual release date was never announced, and now the developer has finally revealed when we might be seeing the highly-anticipated sequel. At PAX Australia, Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines and ZeniMax Online Studios game director Matt Firor clarified that The Elder Scrolls VI might not launch until the next generation of game consoles: the rumored PS5 and Xbox Two, or Scarlett as officially dubbed by Microsoft.
Speaking with Gamespot, Firor said that if players go back and count the years between Bethesda game releases, they will understand that The Elder Scrolls 6 isn’t coming anytime soon. For instance, five years passed between the release of The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. However, it’s already been seven years since Skyrim, so launching its sequel in the next console generation means that by then, it will probably have been a decade or so since the last main installment in the iconic franchise.
Hines added that such massive undertakings require a long time to develop and complete. He reiterates that the only reason why the developer announced it so early was to explain to fans that it hasn’t abandoned single-player games in favor of hybrids like Fallout 76. Hines ended his interview by reassuring Bethesda fans that they’re going to be “OK” and that the developer will “make some stuff you’re really going to love.”
“The Elder Scrolls 6 is big and it’s ambitious, but also, the most important thing to underscore is that the timeline between products that you get from BGS (Bethesda Game Studios) is not any different than it has been historically just because we’ve talked about two games after Fallout 76,” said Hines. “I try really hard to manage people’s expectations. It’s not like ‘Fallout 76 this year, Starfield next year, and then TES6 the year after.’ The timeline isn’t any different. What’s different is just trying to be transparent and say, ‘Don’t freak out, the next thing we’re doing is single-player [in Starfield], [and] we are making TES6.”
