“There is an old adage in software development about the process having three corners: resources, time, and quality,” Nesmith explained. “The studio decides two of them, which determines the third. If you lock down the resources and the schedule, that decides the quality you will achieve. If you lock down the quality and the schedule, that determines the resources you will need to complete the project.”

“A less well-known aspect of this is a rule of diminishing returns. The three corners need to be roughly balanced. You can’t ask the project to be done in a month by throwing a million people on it. Over-committing to any one of the corners increases friction and becomes less effective. Allowing ten years for a project creates a cycle of endless reinvention and ultimate failure.”

To reduce development times would mean “either increasing resources or reducing features, or both,” explained Nesmith, who went on to say that “resources in most big studios are already quite large, and it takes time to onboard them.” However, while shorter development times may have benefits, such as more frequent releases, they can lead to lower-quality sequels, resulting in fan disappointment.

“In my opinion, the biggest risks of shortened schedules are quality, reduced features, polish, or bugs,” he said. “The things that are done last end up getting set aside to complete the game on time. And of course, faster dev times would result in faster sequels. But that’s the wrong question. Those sequels risk disappointing fans.”

As for whether Bethesda could potentially mitigate these issues by getting other studios involved in the development of The Elder Scrolls 6 or Fallout 5, Nesmith didn’t want to make any blanket statement on the matter, since he doesn’t work at the company anymore. He did, however, note that “you can’t just hand it to anyone. I also think that it serves a franchise well to let the ground fallow for a while. A franchise that releases too many titles too quickly risks fan fatigue. Of course, too much time between releases can also be a problem.”

Ultimately, Nesmith believes that “the industry has painted itself into a bit of a corner” due to its emphasis on expanding on its games with bigger sequels rather than refining what it already has. “Each new release has to be bigger, better, and more,” he says. “Which requires more time, resources, and features. Publishers demand it. The fans demand it. But bigger isn’t linearly harder to make. It’s geometrically harder. To put it more simply, you get diminishing returns by adding staff and time. Twenty percent more staff or time gets you less than a twenty percent improvement.”

In the meantime, Bethesda employees who aren’t currently working on The Elder Scrolls or Fallout are rumored to be at risk of impending layoffs at Xbox.

While he didn’t go into too many details, he referred to it as “our biggest project right now” and has confirmed that it’s what “the majority of the studio” is working on. He went on to say, “We know we need to get it right, and it’s been a long time.”

The fact that most of Bethesda is currently working on The Elder Scrolls 6 should come as no surprise, since Howard had already spoken about this back in March.

“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.”

At the time, he also discussed how Bethesda uses The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games as follow-ups to each other with regard to the engine improvements each title tends to bring with it.

“We feel we’re in a really good place with these franchises,” he explained. “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.”

Aside from Howard’s general silence on the subject, earlier this month, Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty was asked a similar question. He noted that the title is “coming along well,” and that it will be showcased “at the right time.”

“I would say one of the more challenging balancing acts of someone in a job like mine is balancing that you want to go show the world all the cool stuff you’re working on, and you want to get them excited early, but we also know that we want to wait till the right moment,” he said.

And when you decide to show it, you want it to be the best you’ve got. And also, that when you show the game, you’re also giving them a promise of, hey, it’s coming soon. So, I can tell you, having visited Bethesda and sat with Todd and seen ‘Elder Scrolls’ playing, it looks amazing, and it’s coming along well. And we’ll make sure to announce it and really reveal it at the right time.”

Howard had previously confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 is being developed with Creation Engine 3 – Bethesda’s in-house game engine that it has iterated upon for more than a decade. The last iteration of the game engine – Creation Engine 2 – was seen in Starfield. The director had noted that the studio had spent “the last several years” on continuing the engine’s development to make sure that it could handle the needs of The Elder Scrolls 6.

However, in the here and now, we celebrate a different occasion. It’s been eight years since Bethesda Game Studios revealed that The Elder Scrolls 6 was in development. Almost seven years after the release of Skyrim, the next chapter in the epic fantasy RPG series was finally upon us. That one teaser would be dissected for a good long while, as fans theorized and opined. Will we finally venture to Hammerfell? Maybe Highrock? Perhaps both or somewhere else entirely?

Eight years later, let’s check in on what XBOX chief content officer Matt Booty had to say about the game to Variety.

“Having visited Bethesda and sat with Todd and seen ‘Elder Scrolls‘ playing, it looks amazing, and it’s coming along well. And we’ll make sure to announce it and really reveal it at the right time.”

Now, there’s more context to be had from his overall answer. Before this, Booty said that, “One of the more challenging balancing acts of someone in a job like mine is balancing that you want to go show the world all the cool stuff you’re working on, and you want to get them excited early, but we also know that we want to wait till the right moment. And when you decide to show it, you want it to be the best you’ve got. And also that when you show the game, you’re also giving them a promise of, hey, it’s coming soon.”

That is all understandable and realistic on the surface, but it also discounts the fact that it was announced eight years ago. Eight years later, we still don’t know the official name. We haven’t seen any gameplay or learned when it’s releasing. Remember when former Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said it was likely five-plus years away back in June 2023? More than halfway past that mark, and it’s looking like it could be another five years.

Where the hell is The Elder Scrolls 6? Why is it taking so long?

We’d be remiss not to mention that Bethesda has been busy with other things, like re-releasing Fallout 4 and Skyrim, and breaking their mods for the community. Or Starfield, which itself took an eye-watering eight years to develop, meaning it was in the works when the studio was busy wrapping up Fallout 4. Granted, it ultimately removed a lot in terms of combat and weapon options, but I digress. We’ve certainly dogpiled enough on Todd Howard’s radical space adventure for a good long while.

So what is happening with The Elder Scrolls 6? Well, Howard said last December that it’s “progressing really well,” though he wishes it could go faster (yes, this was last December). It definitely has more trees than Skyrim, which was confirmed a few days later. And before that in November, he revealed that it was still a long way off, though it passed the “quite playable milestone” in July 2025.

There has been more recent information, from the team confirming that it’s developed on Creation Engine 3 and that they’re “happy where it’s headed,” and that the “majority of this building” – referring to Bethesda’s HQ in Maryland – is working on it. But on the other hand, Howard is now only half-joking that you should “pretend that we didn’t announce it.”

Which is funny because if you go back to what former SVP of marketing Pete Hines said in 2018, the announcement was made (alongside Starfield) for the sake of transparency. Why would they need that, effectively defusing any “hysteria” around what was next? Well, because Bethesda had Fallout 76 coming up and it didn’t want fans thinking that it was just working on multiplayer games.

Yes, that’s really it.

All that aside, however, Howard and the rest of the development team have made it clear that they want to take their time with the game. When factoring in the new management at XBOX and their recent moves, there’s probably an incentive to present this as a major exclusive somewhere down the line. It may even have looked at Starfield and decided that Bethesda needs to move beyond it, delivering something comparable to its best work.

All of that is a noble endeavor indeed, but unless Creation Engine 3 is a massive leap over its predecessor, which is what Starfield is built on, more time spent means more risks of Bethesda’s design and technology becoming outdated. Look at Fallout 4 and how it felt archaic next to games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

It’s also been made clear that Bethesda is operating with a different set of expectations. While immersion definitely formed much of Skyrim’s appeal, it was also several side quests and the overall world that helped it stand out. The studio’s writing has only gotten worse over the past eight years – the jury’s out on whether The Elder Scrolls 6 will really change that. So can Creation Engine 3 really carry the series forward in terms of gameplay or world design?

This probably isn’t even a question of the engine but what the developer wants to achieve. After all, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 offers a pretty immersive experience with branching quests and extensive depth on CryEngine. Fable offers 1,000 handcrafted NPCs and some pretty deep interactions with its Reputation system (based on what we’ve seen thus far). Crimson Desert has already showcased that you can have a world much larger than Skyrim with a strong amount of reactive elements while delivering higher visual fidelity, better combat, and a wider variety of side activities. And lest we forget, that began development in 2018. Add another one to the list, to say nothing of the incredible turnaround of fixes, changes, improvements and new features in just three months. How long did it take for Starfield “Not 2.0” to happen again?

Of course, as always, Bethesda is going to do what it wants to do, which is fully reveal The Elder Scrolls 6 several months out from release. This would be fine if it followed the Fallout 4 or even the Fallout 76 marketing cycle. Instead, due to some half-baked plan to keep its fans from panicking, it’s created an unfathomable set of expectations on top of what’s already there. And while it could – and should – focus on the essence of The Elder Scrolls, and deliver an unforgettable experience – one that fans will play for over a decade, as Howard hopes – it can’t ignore them entirely.

Sure, it’ll still sell millions of copies, and notch up an impressive 20 million or so Game Pass players (not necessarily in that order). But maybe Bethesda needs to change things up, and let fans in on the ground floor sooner. If not for the sake of keeping them in the loop and restoring some goodwill, then to simply gauge feedback on whether it’s going in the right direction.

Or it could just subsist in this no-win situation and try, as always, to do better with Fallout 5 or whatever else is next. And thus, the cycle repeats.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Speaking to XBOX chief content officer Matt Booty, Variety asked how he dealt with excitement for a potential appearance alongside the disappointment? “I would say one of the more challenging balancing acts of someone in a job like mine is balancing that you want to go show the world all the cool stuff you’re working on, and you want to get them excited early, but we also know that we want to wait till the right moment,” he said.

“And when you decide to show it, you want it to be the best you’ve got. And also that when you show the game, you’re also giving them a promise of, hey, it’s coming soon. So I can tell you, having visited Bethesda and sat with Todd and seen ‘Elder Scrolls‘ playing, it looks amazing, and it’s coming along well. And we’ll make sure to announce it and really reveal it at the right time.”

The Elder Scrolls 6 is developed on Creation Engine 3, with director Todd Howard stating the “majority of this building”, referring to Bethesda’s HQ, is working on it. He spoke last December about how it’s “progressing really well,” though once again, there’s been no indication for when it could be revealed. If anything, Howard would prefer fans pretend that Bethesda didn’t even announce it in the first place.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered helped take some of the edge off when it launched last year, but the lack of post-launch support and lingering issues have left a sour taste in fans’ mouths. Remasters for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are allegedly in the works, but they’re seemingly a ways off.

So for now, all that’s really left to do is wait and watch the Bethesda logo appear at a showcase, and hope.

On The Xbox Two podcast with Rand al Thor, the duo discussed newly appointed XBOX chief strategy officer Matthew Ball and his statement about reviving “storied” franchises. When the former said this might mean Fallout, Corden responded, “I’ve heard that like, I don’t know how true this is, but one thing I heard is Fallout remasters are probably a little bit further off than people think, and The Elder Scrolls 6 is still quite far away. I suppose that getting some of those games out more quickly is probably something they’re probably very thinking is top of mind for them.”

Both believe that the alleged Fallout remasters could arrive starting next year, if not “at least one of them.” Corden went a step further, theorizing that perhaps The Elder Scrolls 6 could launch in 2028 or even 2029. At this point, launching any time before the decade is up would be a miracle.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has said on more than one occasion that multiple Fallout projects are in the works, and that Fallout 5 would eventually have its time. Whether that includes Fallout 3 Remastered remains unknown, but rumors claim it’s aiming for the same level of polish as The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered (hopefully with better post-launch support).

As for The Elder Scrolls 6, Howard said last March that the “majority of this building” (referring to Bethesda) was working on the title. It’s developed on Creation Engine 3, and the team is “happy where it’s headed”, but sit tight because the team is taking its sweet time with it.

“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).