There was an immediate sense of excitement when The Elder Scrolls VI was first unveiled to fans during E3 2018. There hasn’t been a new Elder Scrolls game since Skyrim came out in 2011. Some fans would argue that The Elder Scrolls Online in 2014 should count, but while that game is a perfectly fine MMO, it isn’t the kind of experience that the many people who loved Skyrim were seeking. Those folks wanted a new mainline Elder Scrolls game, and the reveal meant one was on the way.
At least that’s what everyone was hoping for. It’s been three years since that E3 and nothing of note about The Elder Scrolls VI has been unveiled to the public. That’s probably because when the title card for the game was unveiled it didn’t actually indicate the game was in development. It was just a sign to fans that a new title was indeed on the way. In an interview with The Telegraph, Bethesda designer, producer, and director Todd Howard commented on the status of The Elder Scrolls VI.
“It’s good to think of The Elder Scrolls VI 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 VI will have some additions on to Creation Engine 2 that that game is going to require.”
Let’s start with the positives: A new engine for Elder Scrolls is exciting information, and anyone that wants to get a first glimpse at it can see the engine in action by playing the upcoming Starfield. Elder Scrolls is a franchise that has been in desperate need of a new engine for quite some time. While the glitches in Skyrim were fun and something everyone could meme, that same engine became a frustrating glitch fest in later Bethesda titles such as Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. A new engine should vastly improve Elder Scrolls for the better.
All of that out of the way now, it’s going to be incredibly frustrating to fans to find out that the announcement made in 2018 really was nothing more than a title card. If the game is only in the design phase right now, as Howard says, then that means we’re years away from an actual release. When are we going to get The Elder Scrolls VI? No time soon. Sorry Elder Scrolls fans, hopefully, Starfield is good.