The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to be unplayable for an awful lot of you

Just as many suspected, it looks as if The Elder Scrolls VI will launch exclusively on PC and Xbox consoles, much to the disappointment of PlayStation owners who were perhaps hoping that Bethesda’s next release might follow in the footsteps of Skyrim.

The Elder Scrolls VI continues to be a long way away from release. While it is currently in development, Bethesda is hard at work supporting Starfield. The game is set to receive a number of player-requested features this year, including the addition of city maps. There is, of course, also the upcoming Shattered Space expansion. When the focus does shift to The Elder Scrolls VI, you can bet that several years of development will still lie ahead. After all, Todd Howard has already referred to it as a game that’ll entertain fans for at least a decade.

Take a look at The Elder Scrolls VI’s original reveal trailer below.

While Skyrim is available across all major platforms (in multiple editions, I should add), a lot has changed since it was originally released. Namely, Bethesda has been acquired by Microsoft. Following that move, it was assumed that The Elder Scrolls would become an Xbox console exclusive franchise, alongside its PC release.

That was seemingly proved to be true during Microsoft’s trial against the Federal Trade Commission. As previously reported by The Verge, a document proved by Microsoft listed Xbox and PC as The Elder Scrolls VI’s release platforms. An additional comment made by Phil Spencer said, “[I]n order to be on Xbox, I want us to be able to bring the full complete package of what we have. And that would be true when I think about Elder Scrolls 6.” The document also listed the release date as “expected 2026 or later”.

This is about in line with what many of us expected. Since this document was released, we have seen Xbox begin to experiment with multi-platform releases, with Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment being amongst the first examples. Still, I’d be surprised if the company relinquished their hold over The Elder Scrolls VI.