It’s been a topic of hot debate, Fallout 5 or Elder Scrolls 6 and Todd Howard has been watched like a hawk for any movement laying hint to which would come this year.
Then as the day arrived we found the answer, probably not the one Elder Scrolls fans were hoping for. Elder Scrolls 6 is coming but not yet, it’s still being developed.
When is the release date? Where is it going to be set? There’s a lot of details which are still known and this is partly down to the announcement coming as a teaser rather than a full-blown announcement.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Being Announced at E3 2018
Tom Howard introduced the teaser after another skit of the next in line for the franchise jokily being on Amazon’s Alexa. The trailer does not show off any actual detail but you can watch it below.
How far is The Elder Scrolls 6’s development completion?
As Bethesda has also been working on Fallout 76 and their other announced title Starfield, it makes sense that not all their development resources are being used for it. It also means that the release date for ES6 could come after Starfield which would make sense.
Back in 2016 and 2017 Pete Hines said that the game “not yet” in development when speculation of the previous E3 conferences where about TES6. He has been quoted in the past saying “There’s still two major, multi platform releases that the team has to work on first, and so TES6 isn’t happening until those games happen,” when speaking with PCGamesN.
What is The Elder Scrolls 6’s release date?
Honestly, a couple years away we think. If it does not come until after Starfield which is Bethesda’s next big project which at the moment also has no release date, full development still won’t happen on Elder Scrolls 6 until then. This puts the reality release date for Elder Scrolls 6 until 2020 unless they have been working on it for longer than we think but we’ll have to wait and see.
Like a lot of other Bethesda titles they like to have it quite settled in development before they announce the release date. Remember when Fallout 4 was announced at E3 and then came out a few months later in their usual November timeframe?
Where does The Elder Scrolls 6 take place?
As not major or any real detail has been announced yet, the location would be a lot of speculation at this point by just going off a trailer. We can though by process of elimination of the previous games narrow down where it could potentially be. With High Rock, Hammerfell, Morrowind, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim already getting games, then it leaves a couple other regions to go. They could be Summerset Isle, Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Black Marsh. Summerset Isle could be less likely considering the Elder Scrolls Online has recently released their next expansion in this location but it does not rule it out completely.
The other thing to consider is the time period, Skyrim happened 200 years after Oblivion which could mean another time jump for TES6 both forward or even in the past. If you look at what has been covered in standalone games and ESO, one of the most likely could be the Khajiiti homeland Elsweyr or they could decide to revisit some of the older games in more detail.
Will The Elder Scrolls 6 support mods?
Modding and Bethesda go hand in hand and although it has not been officially announced with the other games having a big PC and console modding community it would be silly not to continue the trend. It would also make sense to see an extension of the Creation Club as it still has not been fully realised yet to stand up to the amount of player created mods, where the difference is mainly those in the Creation Club being created directly by Bethesda or their partners.
So in the end, a lot of unknown and some speculation means we will have to wait and see what more is revealed if any over the rest of E3 and the end of 2018.