Okay, so where the heck is The Elder Scrolls 6?

Image credit: Bethesda (Image credit: Bethesda)

It’s been a long seven-ish years since Bethesda presented The Elder Scrolls 6 trailer in 2018 at what was then E3. Yet in the subsequent years, we’ve heard precious little about the next Elder Scrolls game. Of course, we’ve had Starfield to fill that gap, which no doubt ate into the resources Bethesda had to commit to The Elder Scrolls 6.

Yet despite a lot of work on the game, and the Shattered Space expansion, while our Starfield review put a decent amount of praise on the ambitious space exploration game, it failed to have the impact, both initial and lasting, as The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim; that game has been updated, expanded, tweaked, and relaunched on numerous platforms to the extent of being a meme.

And while Bethesda itself evolved more into a publisher, as well as still running its own studio, there’s an argument that we need a new Elder Scrolls game to really pull the developer back into the gaming narrative, rather than see it as a company that’s been absorbed into the behemoth that is Microsoft Gaming.

No sweetroll update

The Elder Scrolls VI – Official Announcement Teaser - YouTube

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Like BioWare before it, changes in ownership have arguably seen Bethesda lose some of its hefty kudos in the gaming world. Now we have the likes of Larian, FromSoftware, CD Projekt Red, and indie outfits like Team Cherry, all garnering gamer galvanization.

While I feel that Bethesda, as a studio, needs to both revitalize and notably evolve its approach to open world games, there’s no doubt a new TES game would have an impact; The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered made a surprise splash, so there’s a lot of scope for TES 6 to do the same but bigger and better.

Yet we’ve not had any update regarding TES 6; we know it’s being worked on and is past the pre-production stage, going by the odd comment from Bethesda frontman Todd Howard. But we’ve got no idea how far into development TES 6 might be.

Maybe naively, I’d hoped for some TES 6 hints at the Xbox Games Showcase last month, but no such luck.

So my own speculation would put TES 6’s launch date somewhere in 2027.

I'd take an arrow to the knee for an update...

Working back from there, I’d say we could expect to see a trailer with game footage sometime in 2026, possibly during next year's summer showcase.

I feel Microsoft needs such a potential big hitter to enthuse potentially beleaguered Xbox fans; Fable might go some way to doing that, but outside of Halo, which has somewhat withered in the vine lately, and Gears of War, there’s arguably not a lot of heavy-hitting IP for Xbox to draw upon as this console generation matures. I don’t count Call of Duty as that’s more of a multiplatform proposition, and expected year-on-year.

Of course, you could suggest that Microsoft’s approach to making everything playable anywhere is a way to evolve beyond platform/service exclusives. And I’d not argue against that. But I still feel TES 6 has the scope to be one big hurrah for this console generation, even if it comes to PlayStation.

And for Bethesda, if it can innovate beyond the somewhat simplistic mission structure and exploration seen in Starfield, and borrow storytelling-wise from the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 and others, TES 6 could be an exciting return to form for the studio. Just when that return will happen, I have no idea.

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Roland Moore-Colyer is Managing Editor at TechRadar with a focus on phones and tablets, but a general interest in all things tech, especially those with a good story behind them. He can also be found writing about games, computers, and cars when the occasion arrives, and supports with the day-to-day running of TechRadar. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face and a nose for food markets.

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