Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has recently taken to social media to reveal that she has played an early build of The Elder Scrolls 6. In her post, Sharma teased that the open-world RPG would feature an as-of-yet unrevealed word in its title, much like its predecessors, and went on to note that “the scale and grandeur are incredible” and that “the story is even greater”.
Following up, Bethesda Game Studios also took to social media to confirm that Sharma had indeed gotten some hands-on time with the game. “It was great being able to show you ********. Thank you for the kind words and a wonderful visit.”
Interestingly, some have also taken Sharma’s social media post to be an attempt to deflect from the criticisms faced by Xbox over recent layoffs. Bethesda’s employees and members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union recently brought a large inflatable rat named “Scabby” to display outside of Bethesda’s Maryland office. The rat itself is also surrounded by 800 red flags, each one meant to represent a worker who had been laid off in July. The inflatable rat was put up to coincide with Sharma’s visit to the office.
In the meantime, fans of The Elder Scrolls franchise have been trying to decipher what the eight hidden characters that are part of the game’s title could mean. It is worth noting that, while The Elder Scrolls 3 and 5 have featured the regions they take place in as part of their names – Morrowind and Skyrim, respectively – other titles have instead opted to include other words, like Arena, Oblivion, and Daggerfall. As such, the eight hidden letters wouldn’t necessarily correspond to a new region in Tamriel.
With that in mind, some have speculated that the game could be named after a single city or even a dominant race rather than an entire region. Some of the theorized names include Sentinel (Hammerfell), Balfiera (High Rock), Wrothgar (High Rock), and Orsinium (Hammerfell).
As for the recent layoffs, Bethesda has noted that its recent layoffs haven’t impacted the general development roadmap for the studio. Various studios under the larger Bethesda banner, including Bethesda Game Studios and ZeniMax Online Studios, have been hit quite hard. In an official statement, the company said that The Elder Scrolls 6 is its “primary development focus”.
“With over 65 million copies sold, players are still exploring Skyrim 15 years later, but we know it’s been a very long wait for the sequel,” said Bethesda Game Studios before noting that “We’re where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day.”
However, employees still left at Bethesda have reportedly been worried about delays and even crunch for The Elder Scrolls 6 following the massive layoffs.
Following The Elder Scrolls 6, Bethesda is set to focus once more on its Fallout series of RPGs with a few projects, including remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, as well as a joint project with Obsidian Entertainment, being confirmed to be in the works.
