Elder Scrolls 6 was announced early by Todd Howard and Bethesda because of incredible fan demand, as a former developer at the studio that worked on Skyrim and Starfield outlines how Howard and the team prefer to announce their games, and it’s striking similar to what they did with Fallout 4.
While we all wait, patiently I hope, for the Elder Scrolls 6 release date former Skyrim lead designer and Starfield systems designer Bruce Nesmith has talked about why Todd Howard and Bethesda announced Elder Scrolls 6 as early as they did. Howard and co. prefer a short amount of time between announcement, details, and release of videogames, but felt pressured to at least tell us all that ES6 was on the way, Nesmith says.
Nesmith left Bethesda amid Starfield’s development, but he has a storied history at the company making RPG games which he was asked about by MinnMax.
“[Bethesda] took years of hits for not talking about Elder Scrolls 6,” Nesmith explains. “Todd [Howard’s] opinion – one which I share by the way – is that the videogame industry has short memories. Those companies that start touting their games years ahead of time, they screw themselves. The best time to start talking about it is six months before release.”
With Elder Scrolls 6 potentially around three years away, that’ll put around eight years between the official announcement and release. This differs greatly from how Bethesda approached Fallout 4, and it’s the model Nesmith is talking about. Fallout 4 was announced, revealed, and detailed a mere six months before release in 2015. According to Nesmith, this is the cycle he and Howard prefer, which Bethesda may have used for Elder Scrolls 6 if the pressure wasn’t on after Skyrim.
“Only the fact that the pitchforks and torches were out got Todd to say ‘Yes we’re going to do Elder Scrolls 6, it’s for real it’ll happen.’” Nesmith continues. “But I’m betting you don’t hear much in the way of details until six months before release, which is the way it should be. I think that’s the best approach and [Howard’s] proven that works really well, at least for Bethesda.”
Nesmith doesn’t know what ES6 will look like but says the fingerprints of his development on games like Oblivion and Skyrim will likely be seen in the next game in the series.
So Elder Scrolls 6 was announced early, even if it may have already been an open secret across the industry, to stop people from asking about it and to let them know, officially, it’s happening. I loved how Fallout 4 was announced and shown off ahead of release, and while I’d have loved ES6 to remain secret right up until release, this is the next best thing.
With Elder Scrolls 6 development out of the concept phase and in full swing, Bethesda is well on its way, but we should all still exercise some caution and let them diligently get on with it.
If you can’t wait for Bethesda’s next fantasy game we’ve put together hopes and dreams for the Elder Scrolls 6 setting, alongside the best Skyrim mods if you want to go back and reinvent Tamriel yourself.
