Speculation about what The Elder Scrolls 6’s subtitle will be have been circulating for a while now, with the frontrunner being “Redfall” for several reasons, not least of all because Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax filed trademark registration for it not too long ago. A couple weeks back, reports emerged that author Jay J. Falconer, who’s written and published (through publisher BookBreeze) two post-apocalypse novels in his Redfall series, was opposing said trademark.
Earlier dates for the following legal procedure suggested that the dispute might go on for a while, but it now seems ZeniMax are looking to wrap it up as quickly as possible. An update from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (via GamesRadar) mentions that both parties have consented to having all dates for the procedure to be shifted back by a month, with ZeniMax and BookBreeze (the publishers of Falconer’s books) being engaged in settlement discussions.
What this means is that the two of them are looking to settle things in a timely fashion rather than letting it drag on through a long-drawn legal dispute, with ZeniMax likely being ready to pay up for the “Redfall” trademark- either by way of a licensing fee, or as an up-front single payment to settle the dispute. Something else this suggests that they really want that Redfall trademark- so we can assume that that’s what The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to be called?
Well, no, not until an announcement- but it’s looking pretty likely.