The Elder Scrolls VI

Background

In June 2016, Todd Howard, director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, confirmed the developer's intent to make a new entry in The Elder Scrolls series, describing the game's status as "kind of the elephant in the room", while asserting that "It's good to tell our fans in these moments, yes, of course we are [making The Elder Scrolls VI]." He cautioned expectations in regards to the game's progress by warning that it was a ways off and would take a lot of time to complete before its eventual launch.^[2]

In October 2018, ZeniMax Online Studios producer Matt Firor stated that The Elder Scrolls VI was still a long way off, noting that it would follow Starfield in Bethesda Game Studios' release schedule.^[3] In May 2020, Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines similarly stated that the game remained years away and that further details would not be shared until after Starfield.^[4]

In March 2019, through a promotional video commemorating the 25th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda announced that YouTuber Shirley Curry, otherwise known online as the "Skyrim Grandma", would be featured in The Elder Scrolls VI as a non-player character (NPC), depicted through motion capture photography.^[5] Curry's inclusion in the game came about following a fan petition initiated on Change.org in order to "immortalize" her in the game following a comment she made, expressing regret towards not being able to play the game by its release due to her age. Bethesda Game Studios similarly included a cameo appearance from another major figure in The Elder Scrolls fan community in one of their games, cancer victim Erik "Immok the Slayer" West, who appeared as the NPC "Erik the Slayer" in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), which inspired the fan movement advocating for Curry's addition to the game.^[6] The video detailed plans for the game to utilize photogrammetry technology in order to capture real-world landscapes and topography and use them to depict the scale of the game's world, citing a need to "push our future tech for games to levels we have not done before".^[7]

When the acquisition of ZeniMax Media by Microsoft completed in March 2021, Bethesda Softworks' various development studios, including Bethesda Game Studios, became part of Microsoft's internal Xbox Game Studios.^[8] Xbox CEO Phil Spencer clarified the status of Bethesda's relationship with Xbox going forward, remarking that while they would honor existing contractual obligations as well as continue to support ongoing titles on other platforms, the majority of future titles from the publisher would ship solely on "platforms where Xbox Game Pass exists", and that the potential for benefitting Xbox customers with exclusive content was the primary motivator for the two parties forming a partnership.^[9]

In a 2021 interview, Todd Howard confirmed that it was in the design phase, and that the game's technology would build on the groundwork established by Starfield, which is the first game from Bethesda Game Studios to be powered by their proprietary engine Creation Engine 2.^[10] Howard anticipated that the game would "arrive some fifteen to seventeen years after Skyrim".^[11]

Production

In August 2023, Todd Howard described his intent behind The Elder Scrolls VI as wanting to make "the ultimate fantasy-world simulator", and that there were many directions to take with that goal due to the time passed since Skyrim's release.^[12] The game entered active production later that month following the completion of Starfield's development.^[13][14][15]

On March 25, 2024, Bethesda Game Studios celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, stating that The Elder Scrolls VI is still in development and early builds are already being played.^[16] In a November 2025 interview with GQ, Howard stated that The Elder Scrolls VI had become the studio’s primary development priority.^[17]

In a 2026 interview, former Bethesda developer Kurt Kuhlmann stated that the development team had reached an early internal consensus on the setting of The Elder Scrolls VI during the Fallout 4 development period, though he did not disclose the location and noted that no story work had been undertaken at that time.^[18]

On February 18, 2026, Todd Howard stated in an interview with Kinda Funny Games that The Elder Scrolls VI is being developed as a “classic Bethesda” role-playing game, comparable to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He confirmed that the game runs on Creation Engine 3 and that development has passed a major internal milestone, though no release window was announced.^[1][19]