It’s already been five yeas since Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6, though as many have suspected (and as the developers themselves have stressed on occasion), the open world RPG is still a ways off from launch yet. The latest to reiterate that is Xbox boss Phil Spencer himself, who recently said during Microsoft’s ongoing court case against the FTC over the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition that The Elder Scrolls 6 is still over five years away from release.
In fact, not only is it over five years away from launch, given how far the game still is from release, Microsoft hasn’t yet concretely nailed down plans for which platforms it will be available for.
“It’s many years away, but it’s a game we have announced we would begin working on,” Spencer said (via IGN). “I think we’ve been a little unclear on what platforms it will launch on given how far out the game is. It’s difficult for us right now to nail down exactly what platforms that game will launch on.
“As I said with Elder Scrolls 6, it’s so far out it’s hard to understand what the platforms will even be at this point. It’s the same team that’s finishing Starfield, which comes out this September. So we’re talking about it being likely five-plus years away.”
Announced by Bethesda at E3 2018 with what was ostensibly just a short, animated title screen, The Elder Scrolls 6 will be the game that Bethesda Game Studios moves on to next after Starfield is out of the way- though given how long the development cycles are now for BGS’ RPGs, director Todd Howard has said that the next Elder Scrolls game could be his last game in the series.
A couple of years ago, Howard confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 was still in the design phase, and reports last year reiterated that the game was still in pre-production, which means principal development on the title is yet to begin. If The Elder Scrolls 6 does indeed come out in 2028 or beyond, that would mean a gap of nearly two decades between mainline franchise instalments.
As for what platforms it will release for, though Spencer has said in court that that’s not something that’s been quite decided yet, in earlier statements, he has indicated that the RPG will be an Xbox console exclusive, which is something that Sony said earlier this year as well. However, other recent reports have also suggested that that might not quite be set in stone just yet.