I heard a joke once: Man turns on computer. Goes to edit settings. Needs a patch to fix a system deficiency. Can’t find any other solution. Windows says, “The fix is simple. Only a system administrator can make these changes. Go call one. That should take care of it.” Man bursts into tears. Says, “But Windows… I am the system administrator.” Good joke. Everybody laugh. Upgrade to enterprise for $199.99. Curtains.

(Original reference)

Don’t worry, I also died a little bit inside just when looking up the dates to make sure I was remembering correctly! Definitely a moment feeling like that Saving Private Ryan gif.

There were 17 years between the release of Elder Scrolls 1 (1994) and Elder Scrolls 5 (2011).

It’s coming up on 15 years since the release of Elder Scrolls 5, and still no release date for Elder Scrolls 6 in sight.

Guessing it didn’t enter full production until after Starfield, which itself had a delayed launch. Bethesda has a lot of money, especially under Microsoft, but their core studio (BGS) is still a comparatively small team, likely no A-team/B-team development pipeline.

I’m guessing development of the game is well underway at this point, maybe aiming for a release in the next couple of years. But development is always a dice roll of whether a project goes smoothly and launches on time or if speedbumps might necessitate changes in plans.

Despite the “trailer” for Elder Scrolls 6 that is already 8 years old at this point, Bethesda typically does not start hyping their projects until they’re fairly close to completion (e.g. Fallout 4, first trailer in June 2015, release in November 2015). Starfield was intended to be similar, with its first real trailer (something more than just a title card) in 2021 and a planned release in 2022, though the release was delayed a year by Microsoft for polishing, which I am guessing it desperately needed.

The Elder Scrolls 6 title card reveal, from that same showcase where Starfield got its token title card reveal, was more of a statement of commitment that the series wasn’t dead, not necessarily to show off the results of a project in process. So I’d anticipate that when we do actually see some tangible material from Elder Scrolls 6, its release date will not be too far off. You know, barring delays. But that’s maybe the only optimistic thing I can say about the game right now.

I think the Starfield engine was…fine. Not amazing, but it was probably the least buggy game at launch they ever put out.

I’d worry more about the gameplay loop and quality of writing. That’s where Starfield tanked, and that’s what will end up killing Elder Scrolls 6 if they don’t make improvements.