With no word yet on Starfield’s rumored PS5 port or its second story expansion, attention has turned towards Bethesda’s other big title – The Elder Scrolls 6. The problem is that more than seven years after its announcement, director Todd Howard had little else to say other than it’s “still a long way off.”
Fortunately, while speaking to Game Informer, Howard and the team provided a bit more detail on the development process. “It’s progressing really well. The majority of the studio’s on [The Elder Scrolls] 6, but I’ll say this: We always overlap. So, we’re very used to overlapping development. And we have long pre-productions on things so that we feel good about them. And it’s a process. We all wish it went a little bit faster – or a lot faster – but it’s a process that we want to get right.”
Design director Emil Pagliarulo also chimed in to say that “it’s going!” He also noted that despite the “time pressure” that players “put on us,” the studio doesn’t apply to themselves. “And I know that can be frustrating for players who are dying to play a game.
“Games take a long time, and games get pushed all the time; GTA [6] just got pushed again, which was the smartest thing they could do, because a game the size of these games, they take not just a long time to make, but a long time to spit and polish and iron out the bugs.”
Oddly enough, Pagliarulo starts getting a bit defensive about the long development cycle. “And so, what do fans really want? Do they want a game that comes out before it should and doesn’t meet their expectations? Or do they want the turkey that is in the oven for long enough to be delicious when it finally comes out of the oven, you know? That’s what I think people are going to want. So, we’re going to take our time and as long as it needs to be to be great.”
Which is all well and good, but once again, The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced in 2018. It only exited pre-production in August 2023 to enter early development, with early builds emerging in March 2024. Rumors emerged in July 2025 about the game being “quite playable” after a trailer allegedly circulated, but there’s no sign of a release window.
