The Elder Scrolls VI, whatever the official name and location will be called, is still in development at this time, but new details revealed about its cycle shows that it could be further off than we realized. Development on it is currently in The Elder Scrolls VI design phase, meaning it is pretty far off.

This was revealed in a recent interview with The Telegraph, who had the opportunity to pick the brain of legendary Bethesda Games Studio director and creator of The Elder Scrolls series Todd Howard. During the interview, the topic transitioned to the future and far-off games that Bethesda has coming. 

Some minor new details about the next game in the beloved open-world RPG series The Elder Scrolls were revealed as part of this. Through this, Howard announced that The Elder Scrolls VI design phase is currently where the game is as the studio works to figure out what to do. 

A large part of this has to do with Starfield, the next major focus from Bethesda as the debut open-world sci-fi RPG in what is likely to be a brand new franchise of games. Releasing next year, that game is currently in the midst of its full-on development with the new Creation Engine 2. 

Starfield will run on a brand new engine with new technology for games moving forward, but it was not just built for that title; it is also used in The Elder Scrolls VI design phase. The new engine was built with both games in mind as the “new tech base.” 

That said, the bulk of development and most of the employees at Bethesda are currently hard at work on Starfield to ensure that it can meet its already revealed release date of November 11, 2022. That said, Howard also mentioned that “everybody works on everything so the projects kind of intertwine.” 

This means for The Elder Scrolls VI design phase is that the studio is currently checking the tech of the new Creation Engine 2 to make sure that it can handle everything that the developer wants to do in that game. With each new game that Bethesda creates, some new additions will inevitably be made to the engine to meet the title’s needs.

That was the bulk of the information about the upcoming title, but being that it is still early in The Elder Scrolls VI design phase, it is likely that we will not hear about it for several more years to come. Being that it is in the design phase, it is likely that the team is just coming up with the concepts for now and perhaps building some prototypes during this pre-production section. 

Presumably, full-on production of The Elder Scrolls VI will begin as soon as Starfield ships next year, with the majority of the development team at Bethesda moving to that game. However, that being the case, we are most likely still a ways off until there is actual gameplay that will be shown off for the title. 

This is unfortunate since Skyrim, the last mainline entry in the series, originally released in 2011, is coming up on a decade since we’ve seen a new singleplayer game in the series. This is even more unfortunate since the initial reveal trailer for the next game in the series was revealed at E3 2018. 

That was at the same time as Starfield’s initial announcement, meaning that it will likely be a long time from announcing the next Elder Scrolls game and its actual release. Early reveal was due to the concerns for Bethesda’s games after the controversial Fallout 76. 

Fortunately, Bethesda is still teasing The Elder Scrolls VI with the recent Starfield reveal trailer at Microsoft’s E3 2021 press conference, potentially showing off a clue about where the next game will occur. In the meantime, the interview also included some details about another announced but not-yet-titled game. 

Howard also spoke about the recently announced Indiana Jones game that Machine Games are developing, creators of the rebooted Wolfenstein series. Interestingly enough, this is a deal that has been in the makings for a long time, with Todd Howard revealing that he first pitched the idea of an Indiana Jones game to George Lucas around 2009. 

Machine Games was chosen for the honor of making the Indiana Jones game adaptation because they are “phenomenal developers and storytellers.” We are set to hear more about the Indiana Jones game in the future as Machine Games are working on it right now. 

The game currently has no title or details about what it will be, such as an adaptation of one of the films or an original story featuring the character played by Harrison Ford, so it could also be a long time until we hear more about it. 

Fortunately, at least one game is coming shortly, barring any delays that players can look forward to from Bethesda, and that is Starfield. The first new IP from Todd Howard in a very long time, this game is highly anticipated.

Touted as literally “Skyrim in space,” it will be released on November 11, 2022, exactly 11 years after the game that it describes as inspiration first came out on its legendary release date of 11/11/11. We will likely find more about Starfield in the coming months as we get closer to 2022.