Todd Howard has spoken. Sadly, there will be no Starfield or Elder Scrolls 6 E3 announcements or news this year. Both games were teased at Bethesda’s E3 2018 show but were still in very early stages. Fans hoping to learn more will have to wait even longer for any substantial news.
Howard and other key members of Bethesda Game Studios were in Boston for PAX East where they hosted a 25th anniversary panel for The Elder Scrolls franchise.
“Before everyone asks, please be patient. It’s going to be a long time,” Howard said during the panel. “It’s not something we’re going to be talking about at E3, either of those games, this year. And so patience, please, but you know, given the anniversary, we did want to give everyone a taste…”
The panel had a few tidbits of information about The Elder Scrolls 6. Bethesda is working to adapt Quixel Megascan tech into their game, giving scenery a more authentic feel. Megascan is a physically-based rendering pipeline for asset creation similar to DICE’s use of photogrammetry in Battlefield games. The studio is also working to integrate a new lighting engine from Enlighten Global Illumination into their engine.
Bethesda also confirmed it is immortalizing Shirley Curry, the “gaming grandma,” as an NPC in The Elder Scrolls 6. Curry is a big fan of Skyrim, and Bethesda invited her to become digitized for TES6. She was pretty happy about it.
The Elder Scrolls 6 E3 reveal from last year had just enough information for fans to speculate about the game. Most pin the game’s setting in Hammerfell or High Rock, or Iliac Bay which is between the two. TES6 is expected after Starfield, which looks to be a few years off itself.
The developer said even less about Starfield, which is going to be its next game. In the past, the studio noted that its physics and animation pipelines will be updated for the sci-fi RPG. We don’t know anything else about the game, but it has been in pre-production for years. Last year’s announcement teaser did nothing besides confirm the game’s existence.
