The Elder Scrolls 6: everything we know about the next return to Tamriel

Elder Scrolls 6 has a mysterious aura around it, one that hasn't been dispelled even with over six years passing since being announced. Since precious few details have bubbled to the surface to change that, there's constant investigation to try to reveal more. Unfortunately, we need the most comfortable spot to lounge, because it's clear there's still a lengthy wait ahead before it finally arrives. On the plus side, our hunger for news has made every little development update or scrap of news turn into the most delicious sweet roll of info. While something as choice as a release date is what we all truly crave, there's lots in the meantime to unpack and speculate about. Since Starfield's release and first DLC are gone by, all eyes are set on Elder Scrolls 6 again, and we've borrowed extra fingers just to cross them in the hopes of info drizzles turning into a Bethesda blizzard.

While we wait, since we're already settled in and watching for Bethesda to step foot back on Tamriel and get back to the fantasy classics, we're peddling in speculation, trading rumors, dispeling misinformation, and bundling together the small motes of Elder Scrolls 6 that might slip through Bethesda's fingers.

Where in Tamriel will our next adventure launch us to? Where on the Elder Scrolls timeline will we be making our mark? And of course, the question we all want to know most—when can we play it? (Spoiler alert: it's not soon.) But if you're desperate for an Elder Scrolls 6 experience—and you consider yourself, let's say, "quality ambivalent"—there are always self-proclaimed Elder Scrolls 6 mods out there to entertain the delusion until we have more concrete information.

Here's everything we know about Elder Scrolls 6.

Here's the one and only Elder Scrolls 6 trailer

The Elder Scrolls VI – Official Announcement Teaser - YouTube

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Todd Howard introduced The Elder Scrolls 6 teaser trailer at E3 in 2018. Study it as closely as you dare. Really drink it in. Because this first glimpse is going to be the last official look at the next game in the series we'll be getting for quite a while. If you want to take a deeper dive, we've gotten into a bit of fan speculation based on the teaser down below.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is built on the same engine as Starfield

Thanks to an interview with Todd Howard for The Telegraph, we know that Bethesda's Creation Engine 2 is what Elder Scrolls 6 will run on. While Creation Engine 2 runs Starfield, it was "sort of built for both", and Howard went on to explain that Creation Engine 2 was customized for Starfield, and that further "Every game will have some new suites of technology so Elder Scrolls 6 will have some additions on to Creation Engine 2 that that game is going to require.”

There's still plenty of time, but it makes us wonder what engine customization Elder Scrolls 6 is going to need for its own systems.

Bethesda has said The Elder Scrolls 6 has early playable builds

Posting to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda mentioned that "...returning to Tamriel and playing early builds has us filled with the same joy, excitement, and promise of adventure." While that doesn't feel like it's a whole lot closer to our next adventures, knowing that early builds are in a playable state is exciting enough to get us thinking about all the different stealth archers we'll play.

Bethesda expects The Elder Scrolls 6 to have just as long a lifetime as Skyrim

In a lengthy video interview from November of 2022, Todd Howard touched on a whole swath of topics: Starfield, video game creative philosophy, NPC romance—and, of course, Elder Scrolls 6. About its release: "I wish it was soon," Howard said, echoing earlier statements about Bethesda development times. "We want them out, too. And I wish they didn't take as long as they did, but they do. If I could go back in time, it would never have been my plan to wait as long as it's taken."

From there, Howard confirmed the studio's love for the world of Elder Scrolls, noting that he's spent more time developing in that space than anywhere else. Following the continued popularity of Skyrim, Howard said that work is being done to give the next Elder Scrolls game a similar lifespan. "You have to think about, okay, people are going to play the next Elder Scrolls game for a decade, two decades," Howard said. "And that does change the way you think about how you architect it, from the get-go."

Also confirmed: as expected, the Elder Scrolls 6 is being designed with a mind toward supporting mods, and those who create them.

How many years of E3 has it been since we've heard about Elder Scrolls 6?

Todd Howard put a blessing and curse on us by announcing Elder Scrolls 6 at E3 2018 despite Starfield (ahead of ES6 in Bethesda's pipeline) still being in development. We are very patient, so we're just going to casually tally the years of E3 in which we haven't heard any more about Elder Scrolls 6. And no, we don't intend to stop if E3's in the grave.

E3 2019: "I think everyone should be very patient," Todd Howard told IGN.

Not-E3 2020: "If you’re coming at me for details now and not years from now, I’m failing to properly manage your expectations," said Pete Hines.

E3 2021: "It's good to think of The Elder Scrolls 6 as still being in a design [phase]," Todd Howard said in an interview shortly after E3 2021.

Not-E3 2022: In an IGN interview, Todd Howard sympathized with our staring out forlornly from a seaside coast and wondering when the Elder Scrolls will return from the war, saying that Bethesda games "take a while, I wish they came out faster, I really do, we’re trying as hard as we can, but we want them to be as best as they can be for everybody."

Not-E3 2023: No Elder Scrolls, but in June 2023, Phil Spencer said during an FTC hearing that the sequel was "likely five-plus years away." When asked in an August 2023 GQ interview whether he regretted announcing Elder Scrolls 6 so early, Todd Howard said, "I don’t know. I probably would’ve announced it more casually."

Summer Game Fest 2024: Unfortunately, still no Elder Scrolls 6 news. Following last year's announcement season implying that the game was likely five-plus years away, it was incredibly optimistic for us to think another announcement would be made this year. But alas, we're left just as clueless as we were last summer.

What will The Elder Scrolls 6 location be? 

With so little information, Elder Scrolls fans have taken to picking apart anything Elder Scrolls related to find clues, starting with the original teaser trailer from 2018. Todd Howard suggested that clues do indeed exist, saying the teaser contains "hints at where it's set." The community has run with that. Todd Howard himself has confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6's location has already been decided, and that this decision was made a while ago.

We've taken a crack at figuring out the setting of The Elder Scrolls 6 ourselves.

High Rock

It's a reasonable thing to guess, and currently the most popular theory. The original teaser trailer shows rocks, and appears to be high. There you go—High Rock. That's not quite enough to be sure, though. TES geography changes quite a bit over time, and High Rock has already been covered by the early games. So have Hammerfell, Morrowind, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim.

Adding to the speculation, the Starfield trailer from E3 2021 included a possible Elder Scrolls teaser. A very small scratch on the interior of a spaceship looks suspiciously like a drawing of a landmass. It also looks suspiciously like Tamriel's Illiac Bay, which sits between High Rock and Hammerfell. It's a very tiny detail that could be nothing, but it sure is a distinct shape. Speaking of Hammerfell, Bethesda already might have teased it as a location as well. Maybe things are coming together.

Hammerfell

Thanks to a New Year's post by Bethesda at the very end of 2020, Hammerfell is another possible destination. No one is quite sure if the image posted is really a clue about Elder Scrolls 6, but the message about "mapping the future" sure does seem like it could be. Fans have speculated that the placement of candles on the image is a clue, most notably the one placed beneath the word "Hammerfell" in the undrawn area of the map West of Skyrim. Hammerfell is home to the Redguard people and its Alik'r Desert could line up with the rocky, arid environment shown in the original teaser trailer.

Elsweyr

Elsweyr is a tiny possibility. For one thing, it doesn't show up a lot, so there's lots of room to fill in blanks. Secondly, it's the Khajiit's homeland, and it might make sense to focus on one of Skyrim's most popular races. That said, we're doubtful, given that Elsweyr has been explored in an Elder Scrolls online expansion from 2019.

Black Marsh or Valenwood

Black Marsh is probably a no. The teaser looks nothing like it. Valenwood also feels unlikely, as we know it to be full of swampland. Granted, the teaser could've been intentionally misleading.

We can't rule out that we might be headed back to somewhere already covered, of course. Thanks to The Elder Scrolls Online, the range of uncharted territory in Tamriel is shrinking. That could either prompt TES6 to boldly cast its direction overseas, such as to the mysterious continent of Akavir, an exotic land hosting friendly-sounding races such as the Snow Demons of Kamal and the vampiric, snake-like Tsaesci. Or it could drive Bethesda to revisit a previous province, like High Rock, which again is the most popular guess.

How far along is The Elder Scrolls 6's development?

"It's good to think of The Elder Scrolls 6 as still being in a design [phase]," Todd Howard said in a June 2021 interview. "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 6 will have some additions on to Creation Engine 2 that that game is going to require."

Howard has previously mentioned work being done on Bethesda's Creation Engine as the required foundation for The Elder Scrolls 6. In 2016, Howard suggested that the technology needed to create Bethesda's vision for it just wasn't there yet at the time.

"I could sit here and explain the game to you, and you would say, 'That sounds like you don't even have the technology—how long is that going to take?'" he said. "And so it's something that's going to take a lot of time, what we have in mind for that game."

In another different interview, Todd Howard referred to a "major engine rewrite" being worked on for Starfield. ES6 will almost certainly benefit from the same new engine tech but there's clearly a lot of time being spent up front on Bethesda's next generation of RPGs.

Just before E3 2019, in an interview with IGN, Todd Howard cautioned that fans would need to be very patient for Elder Scrolls 6. By the time the next single-player adventure in Tamriel is released, it will be over a decade since Skyrim's first launch.

"The gap in between is going to be long. It already is. On one hand, I think it's good to miss things. I think that makes people come to it with really, really fresh eyes, and I think when they eventually—eventually—see the game and what we have in mind, they'll understand the gap more in terms of technology and what we want it to do."

Another factor prolonging TES6's debut is that Howard's crew doesn't want to be known as just the Elder Fallout Guys. "I think Todd and his team have earned the right, given the quality of this stuff, to be able to say, 'We know everybody really wants [TES6], but we as creative people want to be able to do stuff that we're really passionate about,'" Hines explained to GameSpot in 2017. "They wanted to be able to self-determine things they worked on next, whether it was existing stuff or whether it was new IP."

In an interview with MrMattyPlays (2024), Howard also stated "We're working hard on it. One day, we'll have it for everybody." Even though it's not exactly a development update, it's still reassuring to hear that development is underway.

When will we see more of The Elder Scrolls 6? 

It's years away—even though we know it's officially in development with Starfield done and out.

Oblivion, Fallout 4, and Skyrim were shown off in near-finished states with relatively small waits leading up to their launches (Oblivion was scheduled for a November 2005 release; it was delayed to March 2006), and Bethesda is probably priming TES6 for a similar sequence. Hines told us in 2016 that the next Elder Scrolls won't be teased along both as a mark of quality and as a balm for the development team to craft the game proper instead of diverting resources for vertical slice demos. That means the shot of some mountains could be the last we see of The Elder Scrolls 6 until much of the game is actually built.

If you're wondering why The Elder Scrolls 6 got announced at E3 when we knew Starfield was coming first, Bethesda's VP of marketing Pete Hines discussed this in an interview with FZ.se. "So it was just in conversations with him [and] folks on my team to say, look, why don't we consider putting out a little bit more of a roadmap for the studio that explains to folks, 'Here's what we're doing—yes, we're making this game called Starfield and here's what it is, and yes, we're going to make Elder Scrolls 6, but we have these other two games to develop and make first.' It's just so that folks have a better sense of where we are and where we're headed."

Will The Elder Scrolls 6 be an Xbox exclusive?

By now, we've all heard that Microsoft bought Bethesda. For PC gamers, this news probably won't have any immediate downsides. If history is any judge, Microsoft will be more than happy to release Elder Scrolls 6 on PC, maybe even Steam. At worst, you'll have to trudge through the Windows 10 store to pick up a copy, while PS5 owners will be left out in the cold.

Budget-wise, The Elder Scrolls 6 was likely going to receive every penny it needed to be the next big Bethesda RPG, but the boost of Microsoft's wallet probably won't hurt either. The game probably won't come to PS5 when the time comes, but it will be a day-one Game Pass offer. That will be a pretty good reason to sign up.

The news about the Elder Scrolls 6 Xbox exclusive comes during Microsoft's 20th anniversary celebration for the original console. Xbox boss Phil Spencer was a little indirect, saying "in order to be on Xbox, I want us to be able to bring the full complete package of what we have. And that would be true when I think about Elder Scrolls 6." The message received is that, yes, The Elder Scrolls 6 won't be on PlayStation.

Will The Elder Scrolls 6 support mods? 

Modding Bethesda RPGs is kind of a crucial cornerstone of PC gaming. There's just something about a player community given the freedom to create some truly spectacular works that makes everything feel right in the world. There's even a finished game based on a Skyrim mod released called The Forgotten City.

While the ripples of Bethesda's rocky Creation Club rollout still haven't fully subsided, we can very safely bet that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be moddable. Even Fallout 76, an online game, will eventually be moddable, says Bethesda.

Look forward to the continued legacy of Thomas the Tank Engine, Destroyer of Worlds.

Elder Scrolls 6 might be Todd Howard's last hurrah

It's hard not to think of Todd Howard as a permanent fixture at Bethesda—the elder statesman of Elder Scrolls, if you will. Even Todd is subject to time, however, and Elder Scrolls games tend to eat up a lot of it—especially when you factor in post-release support. In an interview with IGN, Howard indicated that he's running the numbers on whether he'll have another Elder Scrolls in him once the next game is out the door. "I probably shouldn't say this. But if I do the math, I'm not getting any younger," Howard said. "How long do people play Elder Scrolls for? That may be the last one I do. I don't know."

'Skyrim Grandma' Shirley Curry will appear as an NPC

Fans petitioned Bethesda to include the beloved YouTuber in The Elder Scrolls 6, and now it's official: Shirley Curry, aka 'Skyrim Grandma' will appear in The Elder Scrolls 6 as an NPC.

"This means a lot to me," Curry said in the Elder Scrolls 25th anniversary video (at the 8:40 mark), "because I would be extremely happy to know that somebody else was playing with my character in a future Elder Scrolls game."