The Elder Scrolls 6: Bethesda Says They Are Not A ‘Two-Button Vending Machine’

One of the games that we want to hear about the most is The Elder Scrolls 6– the sixth entry in Bethesda’s flagship fantasy RPG franchise is widely anticipated and expected, but owing to Bethesda’s long development cycles, as well as their tendency to not communicate on a game until it is near the very end of its development, we don’t have the concrete details on the game that a lot of fans so clearly want.

But it also looks like Bethesda are getting a bit tired of all the relentless questions about a sixth Elder Scrolls game, as well as the expectation that that game is coming up next. In an interview with MMORPG.com, Bethesda’s VP Pete Hines noted that the studio wasn’t obligated to just make an Elder Scrolls game next- that they are a bunch of creative people who, it is entirely possible, may want to develop something other than Elder Scrolls and Fallout for their next game.

“This studio is not a vending machine. They’re not a two-button vending machine, where first we press Elder Scrolls and then we press Fallout, and then we press Elder Scrolls and then we press Fallout… They’re an incredibly talented studio of creative people,” Hines said. “They’ve now made four games in a row, all of which were named Game of the Year, and they have a right to decide what they’re interested in working on next and which direction they want to go.

“I, for one, am perfectly willing to ask questions, but I’m not going to second guess Todd Howard when he says we want to do this next, and this, and then Elder Scrolls 6 happens somewhere down here. He’s got reasons why, and I think once we get down the road, those reasons will be more evident to folks once we get there, or maybe not. But at the end of the day, these folks have a right to not just have to make Elder Scrolls game after Elder Scrolls game, which is why they switched to Fallout, and they have a right to stretch their legs and try something else or do something different. I know what they’re working on for the next decade, and I think all of them are things to get excited about, for different reasons, and once they come out, folks will enjoy them for what they are.”

Everything Hines says makes complete and perfect sense from a creativity and artistic perspective- so I can’t fault him for that. And yet I know that there will be a lot of Elder Scrolls fans, myself included, who will probably have a sinking feeling at those words.

Then again, I think we can largely trust Bethesda, no matter what they do- not getting an Elder Scrolls 6 is not the end of the world, if Bethesda end up making another game of a similar caliber. They have, as Hines points out, earned the benefit of the doubt by now- even if Fallout 4 kind of sucked.