Gamers have wanted a newElder Scrollsgame for many years now, but the current project on Bethesda’s docket isStarfield. Game Director at Bethesda, Todd Howard, explains in a new interview whyStarfieldtook developmental precedence overElder Scrolls 6.
Bethesda is known for its ambitious open-world RPG franchises inElder ScrollsandFallout. With these series, releases can be years upon years apart due to their tremendous scale, in realizing a detailed open-world as well their sophisticated role-playing systems.Starfieldis Bethesda’s newest IP, taking players out from the high fantasy world ofElder Scrolls, and dystopic wastelands ofFallout, and into the stars, where players will journey through ahard sci-fi universeof interplanetary space travel. Ironically, and perhaps to Bethesda’s detriment,Starfieldwas announced at the same E3 thatElder Scrolls 6was confirmed to be in development.
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In a new interview with Kat Bailey from IGN, Todd Howard explains the decision to prioritizeStarfield’s development overElder Scrolls 6. According to Howard,Starfieldwas a “now or never” type of project that began shortly after the release ofFallout 4in 2015. Howard says in the interview, “We felt doing something likeStarfield… we’d been wanting to do something else for a long time and play in a new universe, so if not now (…) when? It felt like, if we didn’t do it then, the ‘when’ could be ‘never.” So this, in tandem withother projects likeFallout 76, pushedElder Scrolls 6out considerably, with it now being a decade sinceSkyrim.
As the interview continues, the conversation pivots toElder Scrolls 6and fan expectations. Howard reiterates the lengthy nature of game development of this magnitude, saying, “[E]verything takes longer than we’d like as well, but we want to make sure we get it right.” With the adoration of Bethesda’s RPGs has also come a bit of a fan expectation that upon release, its games still have a degree of bugginess to them, withFallout 76being a mess at launch, for example. “HopefullyElder Scrolls 6— you don’t want to say that it’s worth that kind of wait — but it does stand up to the series as it has been in a really big, impactful way when it comes out,” he says as the end of the interview.
WhileElder Scrollsfans likely have many more years left to wait now untilElder Scrolls 6, it is likely the best route that Bethesda could have currently taken with its development. Had Bethesda tried developing both games at the same time, probably neither title would have lived up to the vision it had set out with. It is hard to fault Howard for expressingBethesda’s desire to try something new inStarfield, but one must wonder if it was worth even announcingElder Scrolls 6to begin with if the game was going to be put on the “backburner.”
Starfieldreleases May 20, 2025, on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
