Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls 6 Are in a 'No-Win Situation', Warns Ex-Bethesda Staff

Outside of the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, anticipation for The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 is probably the closest thing we're going to get to an absolute fever pitch and expectations really are at an all-time high.

It has been a decade and a half since the release of Skyrim, with Fallout 4 dropping several years later in 2015, both of which are long enough ago that we have since had anniversary editions of the games in question.

Developer Bethesda Entertainment took the questionable step of announcing The Elder Scrolls VI all the way back in 2018, when the game was clearly at a stage where development hadn't even really begun in earnest.

At the same time, we've had a bunch of new Fallout releases, including the Prime Video show and plenty of Fallout 76, but they have remained noticeably tight-lipped on the mainline single-player sequel, which has had the knock-on effect of driving up anticipation in and of itself.

With neither game seemingly coming anytime soon, an ex-Bethesda developer has claimed that the company is in a no-win situation, and it's difficult to see how they might be wrong.

Bethesda Needs to Deliver Two All-Time Great Games

Bethesda Entertainment

In a conversation with ESI, former Bethesda Lead Artist Nate Purkeypile has weighed in on the releases of Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls VI, and it's safe to say that he thinks there's a ton of risk attached to both.

When asked if the developer was in a "no-win" situation, Purkeypile responded by saying, "Yes, and that definitely factored into me leaving because Skyrim being one of the top 10 games of all-time, how do you beat that?

If they do, great! And I hope it’s a great game, but even if it’s just as good as Skyrim was, you’ll still get so many people throwing out hateful comments. I’m sure there will be more death threats again. All of that stuff. It’s really unfortunate that that’s the way things have gone."

Some companies have actually started to actively avoid announcing things early, purely to avoid a situation where frustration builds up over the course of years.

Indeed, it seems like Bethesda themselves may have played things differently if they had the time back. The fact that they shadow dropped the Oblivion remaster is evidence enough of that, so fingers crossed they have a few more surprises on the way to tide us over until one of the big new games releases.