Todd Howard has spoken — and it’s the exact thing Elder Scrolls fans didn’t want to hear. In an interview with GQ, the Bethesda Game Studios director confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 is still ‘a long way off.’ That’s right, seven years after that 30-second teaser, and we’re still nowhere near seeing Tamriel again.
“I’m preaching patience. I don’t want fans to feel anxious,” Howard told GQ. That means, stop refreshing Bethesda’s official social media feed — the next reveal is not happening anytime soon. Still, he reassured fans that it’s coming along nicely; TES 6 remains the ‘everyday thing’ at the studio despite Fallout projects and TV show keeping them busy.
“We have hundreds of people on Fallout right now, with 76 and some other things we’re doing, but The Elder Scrolls 6 is the everyday thing,” said Howard. He even mentioned that the team recently did a ‘big play test’ for the next entry of the open-world fantasy series.
It’s a small relief for fans who’ve been living off leaks and speculation since that 2018 teaser. Earlier this year, one of those leaks claimed TES 6 would take place in Hammerfell with shipbuilding mechanics similar to Starfield. Then came reports that Microsoft’s post-acquisition oversight was ‘adding pressure’ to the project. Followed by another ex-dev suggesting that Bethesda could ‘kill modding entirely’ if it has to change engine to Unreal 5 for TES 6.
Nevertheless, the 55-year-old director admitted that The Elder Scrolls series has been running for ‘too long.’ The team needed a ‘creative reset’ to keep things fresh, like what they did with Starfield.
As for when TES 6 actually drops? Don’t expect a countdown, as Oblivion Remastered‘s shadowdrop was considered a successful test run. “I like to just announce stuff and release it,” Howard joked. “My perfect version […] is that it’s going to be a while and then, one day, the game will just appear.”
