Grand Theft Auto 6 is scheduled to come out later this year, marking 12 years since the series’ previous installment, but for The Elder Scrolls, it’s been 14 years and counting. As game development cycles get longer, and expectations of developers mount, there are some questions to ask about how healthy this is for developers and their franchises, and how sustainable it all is.
Bethesda’s releases took on a long development cadence a long time ago. Back in 2011, the five-year gap between Oblivion and Skyrim was considered quite long compared to contemporary cycles of about two to three years. However, the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 is particularly unusual, and GTA 6’s release, a similarly long-in-the-tooth title, should only make that more obvious.
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GTA 6’s Long, Long Wait Is Still Shorter Than TES 6’s
Unless it is delayed, Rockstar’s next title is expected to shake up 2025’s gaming landscape in a massive way, with GTA 6’s rumored price to be $100. Rockstar has a reputation as an industry disruptor, which has caused some publishers to move their release calendars around to avoid the launch window, though this is something that Bethesda probably won’t have to worry about too much.
If there is a target somewhere on the board for TES 6‘s release, it’s hard to guess what Bethesda is aiming for. The veteran RPG developer released a teaser for The Elder Scrolls 6 in 2018, almost seven years after Skyrim’s release, and the gap between said teaser and the present day has been just as lengthy. Fan speculation suggests the game could come out in 2026 at the earliest, but even that seems optimistic, as all Bethesda has offered lately is radio silence.
It is not like the studio has been completely idle, however. 2015 saw the debut of Fallout 4, Skyrim was properly re-released for the first time with 2016’s Special Edition, 2018 marked Fallout 76’s debut, and most recently Starfield launched in 2023. Regardless, there is an observable, and slightly worrying, trend here.
Spin-off titles and refreshes eat up some development resources, which slows the progress of main series releases, but even without those, time between releases has been increasing. Two years from Oblivion to Fallout 3, four years from Skyrim to Fallout 4, and eight years from that to Starfield, with some time spent on 76 in between.
Bethesda is a large studio, and multiple projects can be incubated at once. There is every reason to believe The Elder Scrolls 6 has been in the works for years, as seen in the promo video featuring the Skyrim Grandma. But it most likely entered full production only after Starfield was out the door.
This in itself poses another problem for The Elder Scrolls 6. Starfield was delayed for almost a year, which would have shifted most of the studio’s development effort away from TES 6. While it did finally come out in 2023, Starfield was a controversial release for some that got the community talking about the pros and cons of Bethesda’s game design. This is sure to have made the company think about what TES 6 needs to be, and while only speculation, could have delayed the game further internally.
All in all, the long time seems like a catch 22. The sooner TES 6 releases, the shorter the wait, but the longer Bethesda takes, the more time it can spend on making it the best it can be. However, as it takes longer, gamers will expect more and more from it. Whatever happens next, there is no expectation the game is around the corner, but it is clear that a lot of work needs to be done for The Elder Scrolls 6 to top Skyrim, which only grows more beloved as the years pass.
- 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