The Elder Scrolls 6 will last us decades, says Todd Howard

Starfield may be Bethesda’s next release, but Todd Howard just can’t stop talking about The Elder Scrolls VI this week. Howard previously teased that the opening sequence of The Elder Scrolls VI is something that they’ve had worked out “for a very long time”. It’s apt wording because it’s probably going to be a very long time until we find out exactly what it entails.

It’s no surprise that developers are taking their sweet, sweet time. Skyrim was released over 11 years ago and yet still remains hugely popular to this day. In fact, Bethesda are confident that we’ll be playing Skyrim into the next decade and I believe them. Just look at the incredible fan-made mod content. One new Mass Effect-inspired expansion has added 9,000 lines of dialogue. It’s why Howard is also confident that The Elder Scrolls VI will share an enduring popularity.

Speaking of Starfield, take a look at some gameplay below.

In a recent interview on the Lex Fridman podcast (Via GameByte), Howard touched on the scale of The Elder Scrolls VI. “We’re going to make sure we do it right for everybody,” he said. “People are playing games for a long time, you know Skyrim’s 11 years old – still probably our most played game, and so we don’t see it slowing down.”

He added, “People will probably be playing it 10 years from now also, so you have to think…people are going to play the next Elder Scrolls game for decades, two decades, and that does change the way you think about how you architect it from the get-go.” A two-decade life cycle is ambitious for any game, that’s for certain.

Then again, we know that Bethesda isn't lacking in ambition. Starfield is set to feature over 1,000 explorable planets - and let’s not forget that it contains more lines of dialogue than Skyrim and Fallout 4 combined.