It’s been almost 14 years since the last mainline Elder Scrolls game released, and fans’ feelings are across the board, everywhere from anger, to frustration, to sadness, to impatience, to apathy, and to fear that Bethesda won’t ever put out another Elder Scrolls game in their life time. With the overwhelming success and admiration for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the studio could have capitalized on another sequel if they had just released it a few years later.
Bethesda released Skyrim only 5 years after the release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and it proved to be a very lucrative move, as it provided enough time for the studio to develop a quality product, while also giving fans just enough time to generate hype and excitement for the game.
With nearly three times the amount of waiting for the next game in the entry, some fans have moved on entirely and written the series off, others like me return to Skyrim and Oblivion from time to time to scratch the itch, and some remain active in the online and modding communities, still trying to expand on and make the most of the products we currently have while they wait for the next game.
It’s a strange thing this wait, as so much of the hype has died down for some, but after all this time, the vast majority of fans that have been waiting have created such high expectations that Bethesda may not be able to ever impress them or meet their expectations.
It’s a tricky situation that Game Director Todd Howard has been attempting to navigate with great care, but with remaster after remaster of Skyrim and now the recent remaster of Oblivion, it does leave one to believe that they are either trying to bolster their budget for the upcoming game, or they are hitting a roadblock in development for the 6th entry in the series and are trying to keep their games in the thoughts of fans while they take their time.
The biggest issue fans have been expressing about the uncertainty around the next Elder Scrolls title, is the fact that so little information has been officially released in regards to the gameplay, setting, graphics, enemies, story, or practically anything else for that matter. Bethesda has teased some locations on social media such as Hammerfell and Highrock as being the most likely settings for the game to take place and could feasibly include them both for some environmental variety due to their close geographical proximity to one another and their unique landscape designs.
There have also been leaks from relatively trusted leakers that seem to claim the same, but without official confirmation we’re sort of building a fictional narrative in our heads, which seems to be what Bethesda is hoping fans will do. The more fans theorize and try and decode their teasers, the more the series is in the minds and on the lips of gamers, that way hype won’t die down as much as it would without something to give hope and string us along.
In a leak from a little while back from the same trusted leaker who “confirmed” the setting for the game, it was indicated that the next game in the series will focus a bit more on crafting mechanics, building settlements and even ships for naval combat encounters. Now, ever since the release of Fallout 4 I have dreamed of the day when I could build a city, or town, or even just a hamlet in an Elder Scrolls game for my companions to live and work while I am off questing.
I will say, I would greatly prefer not having such an in-depth building system as Fallout 4 as it got really tedious after a while, but would rather have something akin to the mobile game The Elder Scrolls: Blades, where the game had predetermined lots to place buildings and decorations, and the player just picked which buildings and statues and the like would go in those lots. It was far simpler but got the job done and provided the players’ city with useful stores and crafting locations, as well as NPCs to run them and give quests. Something to that effect would be greatly appreciated at least by me and other fans of customization, in the next game in the series.
Who knows if we’ll be able to even buy player homes in the next game with all of the predicted building mechanics, and with a supposed 12+ cities to visit, I would think it’s not likely that we won’t just be focusing on constructing our own fortresses and/or villages like in Fallout 4. Perhaps Bethesda will implement updated home building mechanics that expands on Skyrim‘s Hearthfire DLC, for added simplicity opposed to the sometimes overwhelming Fallout 4 building mechanics, but time will tell.
As far as the ship building is concerned, I’m hesitant to believe such a rumor as the series has never really featured mechanics even close to that, but with the spaceship building and exploration from Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG Starfield, perhaps they are building on that idea but in the Elder Scrolls universe.
It would be nice to explore the world freely across the sea, getting into occasional naval battles with pirates and perhaps even sea monsters, hopping off for some underwater exploration from time to time. The idea reminds me quite a lot of how Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag handled the seafaring portion of the adventure, and it’s kind of exciting to consider the possibilities of it actually fitting into the experience.
Aside from all that, dragons are reportedly returning to the series, but in what capacity or how it will fit with the lore and story, I am uncertain. I can’t imagine the player will be taking control of a dragon born again, so there will have to be some other elemental factor the dragons play in the overall narrative, but we likely won’t know until closer to release. Also, with the unlikely probability that the player will be dragonborn yet again, what new features could the game include to compete with such things as the dragon shouts? Perhaps they’ll have the player calling in dragon airstrikes, or maybe the player will be able to build a small command-able army of companions and mercenaries to aid in combat with unique skills and abilities, or a crew of pirates to run the player’s ship that can go on land to help with quests?
Another rumor that seems likely to me is that character progression will do away with classes in favor of a more free and open character leveling experience. We’ve seen this in other RPGs, and the specific leveling systems and character building in Bethesda RPGs have always been structured around utilizing the skills and perks that best suit the player’s build or class, so the player is never really tied down to one set decision. I can see how it would work, as Skyrim and Oblivion functioned somewhat like that, where the player could really level up every skill to maximum if they wanted, so long as they put in the effort to do so.
There is currently no official release date for The Elder Scrolls VI but we know according to Xbox CEO Phil Spencer that it won’t be at least until around 2028 as back in 2023 he said that it was “likely five-plus years away.” Todd Howard announced that the game was in “pre-production” back in 2022, and in 2023 Bethesda Vice President Pete Hines said that it had officially entered development.
Of course, this has been disheartening news for many fans who have been eagerly awaiting the return to the series, but it has led to so much speculation and so many rumors swirling around the property that it looks like the hype for the game is back in full effect. If you look at the recent sales of the Oblivion remaster, they are a clear indicator that fans are chomping at the bit for more Elder Scrolls adventures.
At this point we may get a Morrowind or another Skyrim remaster before the next mainline game, but I think a lot of fans would be fine with that too. When speaking on the time it has taken to release The Elder Scrolls VI and other more recent Bethesda releases, Todd Howard seemed disheartened as well, stating:
“I wish it was soon,” “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.”
Supposedly The Elder Scrolls VI is being built on the same engine as Starfield, known as Bethesda’s Creation Engine 2, but with the Oblivion remaster having been made in Unreal Engine 5, it may be possible to see a shift to the newer technology, allowing them to take advantage of the modern capabilities for graphical fidelity, lighting, resolution, and the like. I’m interested to see if they follow through on their tried and true, or if they branch out like they allowed the devs to do with their recent remaster.
In an interview, Todd Howard indicated that even though the Creation Engine 2 was tailored to run Starfield, it was “sort of built for both”, in reference to The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield. “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.” This has left a lot of fans curious as to what additions and new technologies will be required for the next entry, and how many of Starfield‘s mechanics will be carried over and adapted for it as well.
Howard has also indicated that he believes The Elder Scrolls VI will have just as long a lifespan, if not longer than Skyrim, which to me means that the game will have a lot more support after launch, more regular updates, patches and bug fixes, new content, and a far more dedicated and easily accessible set of modding tools so that fans can keep the game alive and ever-evolving as they have with the previous entries in the series. Modding Bethesda games is a staple in the gaming community, and arguably the biggest reason that Skyrim is still popular and being played still to this day.
Howard seems to believe the 6th game will be popular and playable at least 20 years after release, and if Bethesda provides the modding community and the game in general the support it needs after launch, I think it may truly be possible if the game is at least as good as Skyrim. The Elder Scrolls world is Todd Howard and Bethesda’s greatest love, and they have spent more time developing in that space than in any other, according to Howard.
“You have to think about, okay, people are going to play the next Elder Scrolls game for a decade, two decades,” “And that does change the way you think about how you architect it, from the get-go.”
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda posted: “…returning to Tamriel and playing early builds has us filled with the same joy, excitement, and promise of adventure.” This at least lets us know that the game has playable builds that are being developed and worked through, and that’s a good sign that the company is on track to getting the next game into the hands of fans within the next few years. Nearly a decade ago Todd Howard was putting together big ideas for the series and part of the delay was that Bethesda needed to figure out some new technology.
“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?'” Howard said. “And so it’s something that’s going to take a lot of time, what we have in mind for that game.”
A few years later he went on to address fans by saying:
“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.”
Frankly at this point, my patience has mellowed, and I am just ready to see what they can come up with. I want a return to form with approximations of the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and hopefully an arena. I want a living and changing fantasy world with side quests and dungeons dotting the landscape.
I want interesting and unique NPCs to interact with and a return to unique named weapons and armors with special abilities. I want Daedric quests from our favorite cast of psychos and pranksters, and I want the combat to feel smooth. I’m not as big a stickler for graphics as I am gameplay, so as long as the world is interesting and the combat and quests are engaging and intriguing, then I’m set.
What are you hoping for in the next Elder Scrolls game? Let us know in the Discord.
