Summary
- The first Elder Scrolls 6 teaser is now one day older than Skyrim was when it was shown at E3 2018.
- Todd Howard has since admitted that the teaser was shared too early to placate the community who, at that point, were raising “pitchforks and torches”.
Seven years ago, Bethesda dropped a bombshell at E3 — the first-ever Elder Scrolls 6 teaser.
We were only shown a sweeping CGI shot of a vague, nondescript mountain range, which was basically Bethesda’s way of saying, ‘The game is happening, we promise.’ But even that was enough to send the community into a frenzy.
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Many tried to identify the few landmarks dotted along the vast fields, matching the terrain as best they could to Tamriel’s map. Some even analysed the direction of shadows to pinpoint where the coast is located, theorising that we were looking at High Rock or Hammerfell.
It has been 14 years since the last mainline Elder Scrolls game, and nearly seven years since we saw this very brief glimpse of TES6. As reported by IGN, that means the teaser is now older than Skyrim was when it was first shown, and we still don’t have any concrete answers.
Todd Howard admitted that Bethesda revealed TES6 so early because the community was raising its “pitchforks and torches” out of frustration. It’s hardly surprising, then, that very little has been revealed about the game since E3 2018. But that doesn’t mean that we know nothing about it.
Microsoft bought out Bethesda in 2020, and internal FTC documents released three years later revealed that The Elder Scrolls 6 would now be an Xbox exclusive. Whether this is still the plan, given Microsoft’s continued move away from exclusives, remains to be seen.
Similar documents revealed that TES6 will launch in 2028 at the earliest, after having only just entered development in 2023. We still don’t know where it’s set (Hammerfell and High Rock do seem likely), or anything whatsoever about its story. Speculating at this point seems futile. But with it being Bethesda’s next project, the wait is nearly over.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is a long-awaited, upcoming RPG from Bethesda. In pre-production, little is known about its contents, although speculation suggests is could be set in Hammerfell.