TheElder Scrolls 6was first revealed over five years ago with a 36-second announcement trailer. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a lot of concrete news on the title since.
Now that Bethesda has launchedStarfield— the developer’s first brand-new IP in 25 years —with great successdespite plenty ofcriticism on the game’s advertised scale versus its gameplay, it goes without saying that the studio will be shifting to the next installment in the Elder Scrolls series. The new title will be building off the wild success of its predecessorSkyrim(which made the cut forDigital Trends’ top 50 video games of all time) andMMOThe Elder Scrolls Online.
The hype forThe Elder Scrolls 6is immense, to say the least. Not many other IPs can kickstart a years-long rumor cycle with a quick trailer of some rocky terrain and a title. And the anticipation has only grown over time, especially this year with the massive success of fantasy titles likeDiablo 4andBaldur’s Gate 3.
We’ve got our fingers crossed with hopes of a new trailer soon, but it sounds like we’re still several years away from getting our hands onThe Elder Scrolls 6.Here’s everything we know about the game so far. We’ll update this article regularly whenever news hits or rumors are circulating.
Release date speculation
Every fan is looking for a concrete release date forThe Elder Scrolls 6, but there’s been no official update on the project since the announcement trailer and any significant update on its timeline is likely still years away.
Since the announcement trailer launched in 2018, Bethesda executives have been adamant thatThe Elder Scrolls 6would not remotely be a priority for the studio until the launch ofStarfield. And even that timeline has shifted — Starfield was originally slated for November 2022 before it was pushed back to early 2023 and then finally launched in September 2023.
In an interview with Spanish gaming news siteVandal(and translated by aResetEra gaming forum user) in August 2023 aboutStarfield, Bethesda head of publishing Pete Hines confirmed thatThe Elder Scrolls 6has moved out of pre-production and is now in early development. “And yes, there are people working on The Elder Scrolls 6, but [Starfield] is what the studio has focused on. So no, you are not going to hear soon about The Elder Scrolls 6. Starfield is our focus for now, and it’s going to remain our priority for a while before we talk about anything else.”
Given what we know about Bethesda’s development timeline for Starfield — development began in the latter half of 2017 at the earliest and the game launched in late 2023 — it is safe to say thatThe Elder Scrolls 6won’t be nearing launch for another four or five years, at the earliest.
FollowingMicrosoft’s acquisition of Bethesdavia its parent company ZeniMax Media in March 2021, there’s a strong possibility thatTheElder Scrolls 6could be exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, leaving PS5 users to either switch platforms or miss out on the new RPG.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has been asked about exclusivity regarding several gaming IPs since Microsoft acquired Bethesda andActivision Blizzardand has said that exclusivity with new titles will be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Call of Duty was a big focus of early exclusivity talks and eventually Microsoft made the public call that the popular FPSwould remain on Sony platforms, at least for the immediate future.
TheElder Scrolls 6will be a close call. Technically it’s an existing IP and there are plenty of Sony gamers who are still Bethesda fans. But it will also be the first new Elder Scrolls title in over 10 years and has significant hype around it — exclusivity could make some PlayStation owners make the jump to Xbox or PC.
Of course, who knows when the game will come out and what platforms will be active at that time. Spencer himself has noted that the studio isn’t entirely sure what generation of consoles the game is being developed for.
Asked about Elder Scrolls VI platforms: "It’s so far out it’s hard to understand what the platforms will even be…" … "We’re talking about a game that’s five-plus years away"
Spencer fuzzy on whether he previously made a public statement saying it'd be Xbox-only
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo)July 19, 2025
The only trailer — and that’s using the term as loosely as possible — we have is the barely 30-second announcement teaser shown way back at E3 2018. More of a glorified title drop, this teaser simply shows us a landscape and the title backed by a thumping orchestral soundtrack somewhat reminiscent of the one used to promoteSkyrim. Even with such a brief glimpse at the land, the most hardcore Elder Scrolls fans have already picked it apart and theorized where this future game will be set in the world of Tamriel.
The teaser appears to show an elevated landmass filled with large rocks. Right out of the gate, we can pretty safely remove Morrowind, Skyrim, Cyrodiil, and the Summerset Isles from contention. Not because the topography isn’t similar in some cases, but because it seems unlikely Bethesda would revisit heavily covered lands in Tamriel from the recent mainline games.
That leaves us with High Rock, Hammerfell, Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Black Marsh as potential Elder Scrolls VI locations. Black Marsh, Elsweyr, and Valenwood would appear to have too low of a sea level to fit the trailer. There’s also a relative lack of vast mountain ranges in the teaser.
By process of elimination, it would appear that Hammerfell or High Rock are the most likely settings forThe Elder Scrolls VI.
High Rock has only been mentioned by name in mainline Elder Scrolls games sinceMorrowind. It has, however, appeared inElder Scrolls Online. Likewise for Hammerfell, which has been a location in theElder Scrolls Onlinebut only mentioned by name sinceMorrowindin the mainline series.
If it’s not set in High Rock or Hammerfell, perhaps Bethesda will move out of Tamriel altogether for theElder Scrolls VI‘s location. The continent located to the east of Tamriel, Akavir, could prove to be great fodder. Very little is known about Akavir’s topography, though.
Still, based on the minimal information we have, we think that Hammerfell or High Rock are the most likely locations. But who knows, really, as Howard has also said some aspects of the trailer aren’t in line with the region at large. Bethesda probably wants to keep fans guessing until the full reveal.
Gameplay has remained largely the same for the past few iterations of The Elder Scrolls games, and if that trend remains true, then we can probably guess the basics of how it will play. Odds are we will make our new character and control them from either a first- or third-person perspective with the ability to change between them and build ourselves to use a large range of weapons and skills, from fists and blades to bows and magic. Hopefully, Bethesda has some new ideas for how to spice up the variety of combat, but the core they are starting with is at least solid.
There will no doubt be a new version of the skills and leveling system to dive into as well. Again, we expect some new additions we can’t predict just yet, but things like lock-picking, speech, and smithing will likely make a return. As far as any completely new gameplay systems are concerned, and this is pure speculation, we would love to see a more robust relationship system between your character and companions and other NPCs for more realistic and evolving interactions.Skyrimdid have a marriage system in place, but it was extremely barebones and limited.
A leak fromExtras1s on Redditclaims to know some of what to expect inES6.Take all this with a massive grain of salt since the source is unverified at this time.
The source claims that the game will take place both in Hammerfell and High Rock, which is what most fans have speculated already. The map will have around 12 to 13 “big cities” but also allow for entire settlements and fortress building. It will feature both ship building and naval battles building off the ship customization and combat we saw inStarfield,but also have underwater exploration.
Combat is and progression will apparently be more flexible, though we don’t get any specifics on how. It is simply stated that it will abandon classes as we know them and have “better” combat. For whatever reason, we should also expect dragons to be back.
The final bit of information is that the game is scheduled to be shown again in July 2025. At this point, that still seems too early based on what we know about the game’s development, but anything is possible.
We have no idea when to expectElder Scrolls 6to arrive, much less preorder. There will no doubt be plenty of editions with all kinds of extras included once the game is given a date. For now, keep checking back for updates as we learn more.
