Arguably one of the most anticipated games of this decade is The Elder Scrolls 6, a game that is surely near the top of many people’s wishlists. After all, there are only so many times Skyrim can be repurchased. As it has been such a long time since the most recent entry in the series, it could also be an opportunity for Bethesda to explore some avenues of game design for The Elder Scrolls 6, such as the addition of multiplayer.
Known for its big-budget single-player titles, the beloved RPG developer is not a stranger to online experiences. At a time when live service games are facing severe player drop-offs, Bethesda is on season 20 of Fallout 76. As many will know, the online Fallout 76 has had its fair share of controversy, but it is fair to say that the studio has righted the ship in many aspects, so it will have learned a thing or two about what multiplayer elements work.
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When talking about what could be possible, it is not necessary for The Elder Scrolls 6 to completely shift its design philosophy away from the rest of the series. The series is enjoyed by many fans for the sheer variety of things to do at the player’s own pace, and having two main characters bump into one another in a bandit camp would probably not fit the mold very well.
Elder Scrolls 6 Could Take After Other Multiplayer-Lite Games
There is an argument for adding multiplayer elements selectively. Among the many things pioneered by FromSoftware, the Souls series showed how peppering in online play could hugely enhance a solo experience. Even Sekiro has online features, an exclusively single-player game. Player messages, phantoms, and summoned co-op help have added a real sense of community to the Souls franchise, where a little jolly cooperation can help newer players struggling with difficult obstacles.
However, just because online features such as these work for one setting doesn’t mean they would work for all. Climbing a lonely mountain on a misty, sun-kissed morning, the last thing a player needs to see is a myriad of messages and bloodstains indicating something important lies ahead. It works for Souls, where the world is often highly interpretive, but The Elder Scrolls is praised by many for its peaceful loneliness evoked in the environments. This doesn’t mean that some multiplayer elements couldn’t work, though.
PVP is something that has received a mixed reaction in the Fallout 76 community. Being sniped from across a vast distance may be appropriate for the level of technology, but it isn’t always fun. The Elder Scrolls 6 has an opportunity to increase replayability in the post-game by having PVP, but limiting it to an arena space. There would be an easy enough lore tie-in, and players could show off their wacky builds and strange strategies. Balance would always be a sticking point, but it should be argued that since PVP is separated from the main experience, it should have little effect on the core game’s balance, something that is very exploitable in Bethesda’s titles. Having PVP restricted to arenas would reign in the all-too-common stealth archers in Skyrim, which is a plus.
For the less belligerent, there is also an argument for multiplayer. If Elder Scrolls 6 expands housing customization, players may want to take their friends to a fully decked-out dwelling. The summon system found in Dark Souls would not be unwelcome here, using conjuration to bring a friend into the world to clear a dungeon. Alternatively, the game could make single-player and multiplayer a choice upon making a character, similar to Elden Ring’s seamless co-op. There could even be a case made for trading items.
While interesting to ponder, there is a question as to how much players would get from limited multiplayer features, because if Bethesda only half-heartedly implemented them, then they would probably get very little use. Development time is not free, and all systems should have a defined place. If a small team spends six months making instances similar to World of Warcraft‘s player housing accessible to other characters, but no one thinks it’s worth visiting, that was time that could have been spent fleshing out other aspects.
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Skyrim Together Could Change the Way Bethesda Thinks About Multiplayer
The hit mod Skyrim Together completely flouts all the delicate theorizing about rules and simply asks what would happen if Skyrim could be played together with other people. And it has worked, with almost 900,000 unique downloads from Nexus Mods, there is an appetite for full multiplayer functionality. What was a previously held belief, that Bethesda RPGs are exclusively solo experiences that would be ruined with more players, has been soundly challenged by Skyrim Together and Fallout 76.
There are plenty of issues that come with the way both games handle multiplayer, of course. As it is a mod, Skyrim Together does not completely mesh with the way the game was designed or coded, struggling to understand how to handle quest item functions and clearly not being laid out with enough loot to support multiple players. Arguably, this is less of a problem, as its mod status should make the unintended features more forgivable. It is also entirely optional, as no one is forced to download the mod to play the single-player version.
Fallout 76 Shows What the Creation Engine Can and Can’t Do
Where some players have had more significant problems is Fallout 76. Built entirely for multiplayer as an MMO-lite, it made extreme modifications to the Creation Engine just to work. Fallout 76 launched without NPCS and still doesn’t have major main title features such as theft. For a lot of fans, the immersive systems that draw them to the series being removed was a bridge too far, with many saying it does not feel like an authentic Fallout experience.
Still, one can enjoy Fallout 76 for different reasons than the main series. An always-online world, it was never going to feel like the intricately hand-crafted environments of Fallout 4, for example. The two offer different ways to experience the Fallout setting, with different expectations for the player. For example, role-playing is reduced in 76 so that it can make way for better online gameplay. With some more focus on incorporating some multiplayer elements and discarding others that don’t work, maybe Bethesda could create a game that does not have to compromise like Fallout 76.
Evidently, if Bethesda were to pursue multiplayer to some degree, there is a tightrope to walk between not doing enough with it, and going too far as to make deep cuts to immersion. The studio should watch the reaction to Skyrim Together and Fallout 76 with one eye, though, as the gaming landscape is always evolving, and the addition of some new player interactivity could really help to keep the next game feeling fresh for the inevitable long wait until The Elder Scrolls 6 and a potential sequel.
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The Absence of Online Features in Starfield Is the Elephant in the Room
Starfield is the most recent look into Bethesda’s future design philosophy, and that philosophy looks remarkably like the one that gave the world Skyrim back in 2011. Starfield takes every opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the studio’s previous work, including the lack of any multiplayer elements.
This is despite launching five years after Fallout 76, when the developer had already figured out a framework for multiplayer. Its absence in Starfield is very conspicuous then, as this was not Bethesda rejecting to explore how to add online features – this was a deliberate choice, and the biggest indicator that multiplayer is something reserved for specific games.
If anything, Starfield had great multiplayer potential at launch. A new IP set across a large galaxy of planets, it seems ideal for providing a living world populated by players setting up bases on faraway moons, trading on space stations, and getting into dogfights over intercepted shipments. Starfield was criticized for feeling boring and barren, which some amount of multiplayer angle could have helped alleviate. But Bethesda chose not to do any of this, harkening back to the lonely RPGs of its past.
The poor reception to Starfield when it first launched may be, ironically, a glimmer of hope. For players who want the studio to try new things, they could be in luck, as the general lukewarm reception to Starfield generated a lot of questions about Bethesda’s future titles. There is a chance there will be some changes made to Elder Scrolls 6 if the developer wants to take the game in a different direction from Starfield, and perhaps this time, with innovations, new ideas, and a way of thinking about how to make its worlds feel alive again.
- Released
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2026
- ESRB
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m
- Developer(s)
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Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Bethesda Softworks
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