“I don’t want to count The Elder Scrolls 6,” he said, laughing. “Starfield was long. But other than that, they’re usually pretty short.” He went on to note that Starfield’s development time was anchored by the fact that it is a brand new IP rather than being a sequel to another long-running franchise. Much of the development time also happened to overlap with global pandemic-induced lockdowns, as well as Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda being completed.

At this point, thanks to the fact that games like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and the Fallout series continue to be quite successful, Bethesda as a whole is in a good position. Interestingly, this has also brought on the added challenge for the studio since it now also has to make sure that players for these older titles continue to be engaged. “We also, again, have that benefit of having so many millions of people playing our other games that we’re actually trying to figure out how to serve those other audiences while we make a new one,” he said.

This means that Bethesda has had to grow out its development teams. “We sort of top out with partners, four or 500 people. That’s kind of like our peak,” said Howard. “We’re seeing that growth is slow for us, to be honest, compared to, I think maybe the rest of the industry, where we still want to be who we are and making a game.”

When it comes to making a game, Howard describes the process as revolving around long pre-production periods where the “a good kernel of a game” is fleshed out before development then continues. “We really want to get a good kernel of a game that we’re ready to then put more people on and start moving faster,” he explained. He also noted that the industry at large was struggling with the idea of when more money should start being invested in a project.

“It’s something a lot of people are struggling with,” he said. “Which is really, how much time and money can you invest… just pick a game that you have in mind. The industry is in a difficult spot, where can you, you know, what’s your confidence in that making any money, right? Because the expenses are high. So I think every studio’s dealing with that in their own way.”

In the same roundtable interview, Howard had also confirmed that the majority of developers at Bethesda Game Studios are working on The Elder Scrolls 6. “The majority of this building is working on The Elder Scrolls 6,” he said. “It’s amazing for us to come back to it. I gotta be honest, right? Being in that world after not developing in Elder Scrolls – it’s so different than Starfield, so different than Fallout – it feels great for us.”

“The majority of this building is working on The Elder Scrolls 6,” he said. “It’s amazing for us to come back to it. I gotta be honest, right? Being in that world after not developing in Elder Scrolls – it’s so different than Starfield, so different than Fallout – it feels great for us.”

He went on to note the fact that, in technical terms, games across The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises tend to be follow-ups to one another. For example, he brought up how The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was a follow-up to Fallout 3, since the fantasy RPG brought in several engine improvements. Similarly, Fallout 4 then served as yet another follow-up.

“We feel we’re in a really good place with these franchises,” he said. “Obviously, we’re around Fallout stuff as well, and we feel good about that. The trick is still we have three big audiences, and in some ways, three big franchises – and in a lot of ways, the franchise is the studio. Skyrim is somewhat the sequel to Fallout 3. Fallout 4 is somewhat our follow-up to Skyrim.”

While there is “a lot of crossover” among fans of these franchises, Howard also believes that “there’s definitely people who strongly, strongly prefer one over the other, which is totally understandable.” These preferences tend to come from the fact that the games have “very different vibes,” both in terms of gameplay as well as in development. He also noted that the fantasy setting of The Elder Scrolls 6 offers “something very romantic” thanks to “a world you feel you can almost step out into.”

In another interview, Howard also spoke about how Bethesda learned plenty of lessons on how to handle its in-house Creation Engine during the development of Starfield. This, he noted, helped when the studio was upgrading the engine from version 2 to 3 while developers were actively working on The Elder Scrolls 6.

“I will say the way we approached the engine work – we’ve done a much better job of it this time,” he said. “With Starfield, it was made on Creative Engine 2, which was a big change from the original engine. We have Creation Engine 3 for Elder Scrolls 6. It started with 2.”

He described the process of this engine upgrade as being “an upheaval for the team trying to make stuff,” and said that it was like “just pulling the rug out” from under the developers’ feet while they were actively working on it. Ultimately, however, the team is seemingly satisfied with the upgrade.

“This wasn’t me saying it; everyone on the team was like, ‘We have to handle this engine updating and change much better so that we can be productive.’ And I’m giving the team an A+ there. We have handled that better than we ever have,” he said.

“I will say the way we approached the engine work – we’ve done a much better job of it this time,” he said. “With Starfield, it was made on Creative Engine 2, which was a big change from the original engine. We have Creation Engine 3 for Elder Scrolls 6. It started with 2.”

Making this jump from Creation Engine 2 to 3 hasn’t exactly been easy for Bethesda, however. He said that the whole process of upgrading the engine was “an upheaval for the team trying to make stuff,” and compared it with “just pulling the rug out,” from under the developers’ feet. “With Starfield, we pulled the rug out,” he said. “We were doing things in tandem with old and new.”

Ultimately, however, the studio is apparently feeling better than ever with regards to the development of The Elder Scrolls 6. “This wasn’t me saying it; everyone on the team was like, ‘We have to handle this engine updating and change much better so that we can be productive.’ And I’m giving the team an A+ there. We have handled that better than we ever have,” he said.

Howard went on to note that the developers working on the highly-anticipated RPG are “very happy where the tech is and where it’s going,” especially since “being able to develop while you’re changing your tech is a big trick.”

Howard has spoken about Creation Engine 3 and its use for The Elder Scrolls 6 in the past. Back in February, he spoke about the team being quite happy with development progress so far, and where it’s headed. “We have a style of game we really, really like, that people expect from us, and there is a lot of innovation to be done there still, so when you step into a world, you feel like you are experiencing it for the first time,” he said. “We’re happy with where [The Elder Scrolls 6] is headed right now.”

While development has seemingly been going quite smoothly, Howard has acknowledged the fact that The Elder Scrolls 6 may have been announced too soon. In an interview earlier this month, he said that fans of the franchise should probably forget that it was unveiled with a teaser all the way back in June 2018. “Just pretend we didn’t announce it. Doesn’t exist. No one’s heard a word,” he said.

He went on to talk about how it can often be quite difficult for game companies to figure out the ideal time to unveil their project, while also making sure that they can sustain excitement for it over the several years that a title might take to develop.

Coming hot on the heels of Nate Purkeypile’s assertion that the reveal was to ensure the studio didn’t draw the ire of its fans, and Howard’s own assertion that he liked the direction the game was taking just last month, a recent interview with IGN suggests that you might have to wait a little longer for it.

Although Starfield’s upcoming major update was the subject of that conversation, Howard fielded a question about The Elder Scrolls 6 that we believe he knew was coming. “Just pretend we didn’t announce it. Doesn’t exist. No one’s heard a word.”

However, Howard was pretty chatty about how it can be tricky to find the perfect time to announce a game to sustain the excitement for it. The upcoming addition to a franchise that Bethesda is famous for seems to be doing quite well, although those among you who can’t wait to get your hands on it may disagree.

“I like to say, I always start with, when you go and press play, you’re about to play a game. What do you already know? What’s in your head? What’s your excitement level? What’s your expectations? And I back up from there. I prefer not to talk about stuff until then. I like to compress that moment where you hear about a game to when you can play it. Those would be on top of each other if I had my way every time. That isn’t necessarily the best thing to do with every game. Sometimes you need to inform people, and there’s business considerations and et cetera, et cetera.

“If you look back at this Fallout 76, Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6 announcement, that was really about informing our audience, because when you’re going to do something new, everyone’s going to ask, ‘What about Elder Scrolls 6? What about a single player game?’ And we did it that way, but it’s not my preference. And I will say, look, we struggle with the balance, because our fans want to know, they’re amazing and saying like, ‘Well, what are you doing?’

“And, well, we’re working on a lot of stuff. I think if you look at the scale of our studio, we could have 10 times the amount of people to do all this. We’re doing so much, and it’s just finding the right times to tell everybody about it. Look at Starfield today. I feel like the Starfield audience has been, ‘What about us?’ And we had sort of balance with like, ‘Hey, the end of the Fall was for Fallout, the TV show,’ with everything we were doing. And we knew that we were just going to save the Starfield stuff to give it its spotlight during this time. But yeah. It’s a balance.”

That’s probably not what anyone who loves the fantasy franchise might have wanted to hear, least of all us, but it’s probably best to let the talented folks at Bethesda cook at their own pace and bring us a sequel that blows us away. That’s definitely going to make the long wait for this one worth it.

Until then, PS5 players can look forward to the launch of Starfield on April 7th while all platforms get the massive Free Lanes update and new Terran Armada expansion. Head here for everything you should know about both.

Furthermore, The Elder Scrolls 6 is a return to what fans may know Bethesda best for. “In many ways, Fallout 76 and Starfield are a little bit of a creative detour from kind of that classic Elder Scrolls, Fallout, where you are exploring a world in a certain way. As we come back to Elder Scrolls 6 that we are doing now, we are coming back to that classic style that we’ve missed, that we know really, really well.

“We have a style of game we really, really like, that people expect from us, and there is a lot of innovation to be done there still, so when you step into a world, you feel like you are experiencing it for the first time. We’re happy with where [Elder Scrolls 6] is headed right now.”

While he didn’t explicitly state this as the reason for the long development cycle, Bethesda has spent “the last several years bringing Creation Engine 2, which powers Starfield, up to Creation Engine 3, which is going to power Elder Scrolls 6 and beyond.”

If that wasn’t enough, it’s soon crossing a “big milestone.” Despite how smoothly things are going, however, Howard said it’s “going to be a while yet.” Nevertheless, for fans who have waited a long time for something, anything, about the project’s status, it’s good to have some concrete details (though hearing that it has more trees than Skyrim is neat).

Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising if there’s some concern about Bethesda’s continued usage of the Creation Engine. While there was hype surrounding the improvements made to Starfield, the latter ultimately fell off for many. Then again, given the amount of time passed, the development team may have some substantial changes in hand.

Time will ultimately tell, and until then, The Elder Scrolls 6 still lacks a release date or confirmed platforms (but you can safely assume it’s coming to PC).

In the second part of Game Informer’s “An Oral History of Fallout” series, Howard followed design director Emil Pagliarulo in discussing how Fallout evolved over the years. “Fallout 1, like, the tone of that game and the world of it became our boilerplate in terms of whenever you go to do something new.”

The conversation then shifted to Bethesda’s own The Elder Scrolls series. “We do that with our own stuff, right? When we go to do an Elder Scrolls game, I do kind of like to start over, so you look back across the franchise and say, ‘Okay, what’s important? How do you sort of file away the age? Like, okay, what’s underneath that? Why do certain game mechanics… how do they make you feel, as opposed to the actual mechanic? What are the unique things about the world?'”

Interestingly, even if Bethesda hadn’t obtained the rights to Fallout, it still “wanted to do something post-apocalyptic.” However, the title itself “is just so unique,” says Howard.

While The Elder Scrolls 6 could very well alter how players interact with the world, its leveling system apparently won’t veer too far away from Skyrim. This is according to former design director Bruce Nesmith, who noted that the “whole, ‘You do it to get better at it’” system would continue. Of course, considering how significantly the series had changed throughout history (remember that Arena and Daggerfall had procedurally generated worlds), it could end up surprising fans.

Alongside the lack of a release date, The Elder Scrolls 6 lacks any officially announced platforms. Its setting was seemingly decided when Fallout 4 was in development, though whether it remains the same is unknown. Wherever it may be, there are “most definitely” more trees present than in Skyrim, per Howard.

Forza Horizon 6

Forza Horizon 6 looks set to continue Playground Games’ mastery of open-world racing, building on one of the most consistently polished franchises in the genre. Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Japan, Forza Horizon 6 takes players across an even more dynamic map, deeper seasonal systems, and expanded social features – and of course, plenty of race events. With stunning visuals and an ever-growing roster of cars, Forza Horizon 6 feels like a dream of motorheads come true.

“From when we were talking about it way back in the Fallout 4 timeframe, there was a sort of consensus amongst a few people that were talking about it,” he said, marking these conversations as having happened before the 2015 release of the post-apocalyptic RPG.

“We had an idea, but it was more of a consensus, like, ‘OK, where should the next game be?’ And the people that were talking all agreed. It was not an argument. It was like, well, obviously, it should be here. We were more in the feel of it, in the setting; there was no story involved yet.”

Ultimately, however, Kuhlmann admits to not really knowing what the setting of The Elder Scrolls 6 will be, owing to the fact that “I haven’t been involved in that level of the story side of things since Skyrim.”

Bethesda has been quiet since it first teased The Elder Scrolls 6 all the way back in 2018, and the video didn’t really reveal much either aside from the fact that it will feature a vast landscape with mountains on the horizon.

Kuhlmann had previously spoken about his concept for The Elder Scrolls franchise after Skyrim, which would involve a cliffhanger ending for The Elder Scrolls 6 that would then build towards The Elder Scrolls 7. He compared the idea to classic Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.

“I had in my mind that TES6 was going to be like The Empire Strikes Back,” he said. His concept would involve Thalmor supremacists assuming the role of antagonists for The Elder Scrolls 7. The entire build-up for this story would take place in The Elder Scrolls 6, with the story revolving around the group’s ambitions to conquer all of Tamriel.

This kind of ending, he acknowledged, wouldn’t be allowed in a Bethesda game, calling it “completely unfeasible” thanks to the studio’s longer game development cycles. “That’s not a good way to end a game and say, yeah, we’ll see you in 10, 15 years,” he said.

Kuhlmann also opened up about how his departure from Bethesda happened due to a cultural shift in how the studio made its games, along with the fact that he wouldn’t get to work on The Elder Scrolls 6 as lead designer. Describing the cultural shift as feeling “more bureaucratic,” Kuhlmann said, “The expectation was… your job can’t be also making content if you’re actually managing that scope of the project.”

In December, director Todd Howard confirmed that development on The Elder Scrolls 6 has been “progressing really well”. He went on to note that most of the studio is working on the open-world RPG, and that Bethesda often tends to have long pre-production periods to ensure “that we feel good about them. And it’s a process.”

“I had in my mind that TES6 was going to be like The Empire Strikes Back,” he said, going on to explain that the elven supremacists among the Thalmor would eventually be built up as the main antagonists for The Elder Scrolls 7. This build up would largely take place throughout The Elder Scrolls 6, and would involve the group’s ambition to gain control over the entirety of Tamriel.

He acknowledged that this kind of ending wouldn’t really be allowed in a Bethesda game, referring to a cliffhanger ending as being “completely unfeasible.” This is especially true for a studio that has incredibly-long development cycles. “That’s not a good way to end a game and say, yeah, we’ll see you in 10, 15 years,” he said.

Further in the interview, Kuhlmann also spoke about how the culture of game development at Bethesda had changed since the release of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. He noted that, while the senior developers were working on the game directly back then, over time, these senior developers would start taking more managerial roles. Kuhlmann described it as feeling “more bureaucratic,” going on to say that: “The expectation was… your job can’t be also making content if you’re actually managing that scope of the project.”

His eventual departure was a combination of this culture shift, along with the fact that he wouldn’t get to work as the lead designer on The Elder Scrolls 6. Director Todd Howard had previously promised Kuhlmann that after wrapping work on Fallout 4, the studio would then start the development of The Elder Scrolls 6. However, it would instead follow up on Fallout 4 with multiplayer title Fallout 76, which would then be succeeded by Starfield.

“I was obviously one of the old-timers there and had a lot of experience. Bruce [Nesmith] and I had been the co-leads on Skyrim. I think most people would call it a successful project, so I thought that it wasn’t unreasonable for me to think that I could be a successful lead on TES6. It wasn’t just my expectation—I had been told that that was going to happen,” he said. “And they made the decision, no, you’re not going to be the lead.”

While no new details about The Elder Scrolls 6 have been revealed since the game’s original announcement back in 2018, Howard had said back in December that development on the title has been “progressing really well.” Design director Emil Pagliarulo acknowledged the “time pressure” that the studio has been facing from its fans, and has asked these fans to be patient.

When asked about this “no-win” situation for the studio, Purkeypile said: “Yes, and that definitely factored into me leaving because Skyrim being one of the top 10 games of all-time, how do you beat that?” He went on to acknowledge that Bethesda has the potential to beat expectations with its future games. However, he did note that just simply meeting expectations wouldn’t be enough for the developer.

“If they do, great! And I hope it’s a great game, but even if it’s just as good as Skyrim was, you’ll still get so many people throwing out hateful comments. I’m sure there will be more death threats again. All of that stuff. It’s really unfortunate that that’s the way things have gone,” he said.

Further discussing The Elder Scrolls 6, Purkeypile was also asked his thoughts on where the next entry of the open-world RPG franchise should take place among its fictional world of Tamriel. He said that we would likely end up seeing an entirely new location, but that the scope of the game would likely revolve around a singular region of Tamriel. Comparing it to the much larger scale of sci-fi RPG Starfield, he noted that games can often benefit from being a bit more constrained.

“I probably shouldn’t guess on that, other than not one of the regions that they’ve already done recently. Outside of Daggerfall. That doesn’t count,” he said. “My hope would be that they would just pick one region of Tamriel because that’s part of why I was not super into Starfield. It was the scope above all else.”

“I think there is something to be said for going a bit more constrained. I always thought that was a weird goal anyway. No one before was saying I wish there were more of a Bethesda game! It’s like, dude, people are playing that like a decade plus later. Do you really need it to be bigger? You can always dig deeper and deeper within that space because it’s already so big.”

In the same interview, Purkeypile also revealed that The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced incredibly early just to make sure that fans of the studio weren’t angry at it for not having done anything with the franchise since Skyrim.

“My assumption was always that we were announcing Starfield, and it had been so long already since Skyrim that we needed to make sure people were not just pissed at us. It’s a very expensive way to do that, though. Those trailers are not cheap,” said Purkeypile when asked about The Elder Scrolls 6‘s announcement.