The number of hours I’ve personally sunk into The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is borderline upsetting. Some of my fondest gaming memories center on the game, which I first played on an Xbox 360 and later bought again for my Nintendo Switch. Like Stardew Valley, it’s a game you kind of can’t just own one copy of at this rate. Given that Skyrim is one of my all-time favorite games, I’ve been waiting and wishing for The Elder Scrolls 6 for a very long time now. But at this rate, I’m starting to worry we might be waiting for nothing.
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Like many big sequels, The Elder Scrolls 6 was probably announced a bit too soon. When that first teaser trailer arrived in 2018, the game didn’t appear to have been very far along. But all these years later, we still know next to nothing about the next Elder Scrolls. That could be Bethesda doing a good job of keeping its secrets. But given that The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered was sussed out long before its shadow drop, I’m not so sure. Despite rumors and mumblings about the game, what we actually know is… that it exists. Allegedly. And I’m not sure that’s enough to prove I’m ever going to sink into a brand-new main series Elder Scrolls game again.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Teaser Trailer Is Older Than Skyrim Was When It Launched
The teaser trailer for The Elder Scrolls 6 was revealed at the now-defunct E3 conference back in June 2018. At that time, Skryim itself was just under 7 years old. That means the Elder Scrolls 6 trailer, which turned 7 in June, is now officially older than Skryim was when it debuted. In all that time, we’ve seen next to nothing new about The Elder Scrolls 6. Rumors and whispers, yes. But concrete facts or gameplay footage? No.
Since The Elder Scrolls: Arena, the series’ pacing has been inconsistent. Some games have arrived within a few years of one another, such as the 4-year gap between Morrowind and Oblivion. Each game also received a few expansions in that time, giving fans new content even between major new releases. But the longest gap between main series entries before now was the 6-year distance between Daggerfell and Morrowind.
That means we’ve officially entered seriously unprecedented territory for the franchise. The Elder Scrolls 6 trailer itself debuted when Skryim was already 7. Now, it’s been a full 14 years since a new main series entry in The Elder Scrolls franchise. Even Skryim‘s most recent expansion, Dragonborn, is 13 years old. Yes, we’ve had new spinoff entries like The Elder Scrolls Online and mobile games like Blades since then. But not having The Elder Scrolls 6 yet is a serious break in tradition, one that leaves me wondering just what exactly is taking so long.
Is Bethesda Afraid of Skyrim’s Shadow?
Obviously, I don’t know what’s actually going on behind the scenes at Bethesda. It’s possible they’ve been diligently working on the greatest Elder Scrolls game fans have ever seen, and that it’s taking this long because it’s just that deep. But I have my suspicions we’ve got a touch of the George R.R. Martin Game of Thrones problem going on here. I worry Bethesda might be a little bit stuck.
The earlier Elder Scrolls games were clearly successful enough for Bethesda to keep trucking along making them. But no game has acquired quite the level of clout and longevity as Skyrim. Even all these years later, people are still playing and talking about the game. And creating the follow-up to a game that looms that large? That’s got to be a tough ask.
How do you follow up Skyrim? How can you deliver an experience that tops something players still love so much? That’s a terrifying question to ask, and one that could easily make it tough to know just what to do to get The Elder Scrolls 6 right. Expectations are high. I know mine are. And as the years go on, we don’t tend to expect less from a project that’s been in development this long. If they’re taking their time, many gamers want to see something worth waiting for.
What would that even look like? Games and game dev have changed a lot since Skyrim arrived on the scene. The open world needs to be massive, immersive, varied, and full of the same quirk and charm of Skyrim. But it also has to somehow top it. It needs to be bigger, better, and more graphically enhanced. The story has to capture us, topping that of the Dragonborn themself. It’s a big task, one that could feasibly take this long to achieve. But it’s also one that could easily be just too overwhelming.
With Game Cancellations Getting More Common, ES6 Isn’t Guaranteed
More than anything, though, it’s the climate with AAA gaming that has me biting my nails over The Elder Scrolls 6. Things have been pretty rough these last few years. We’ve seen big profile projects scrapped, studios shuttered, and massive layoffs across the board. Big, highly anticipated follow-ups in popular series like Dragon Age: The Veilguard have stumbled in big, public ways. And games aren’t getting any cheaper, to make or to buy.
There’s also the fact that Bethesda is a Microsoft-owned studio to contend with. Like many game publishers, the last few years at Microsoft have featured layoffs, restructures, and general uncertainty and instability. Bethesda is one of the big ones, with the recent release of Oblivion Remastered no doubt helping prop up its reputation and value. But even so, I don’t think any game is guaranteed these days. Especially not one that we’ve been waiting on for so long with so few updates.
I really, really hope my concerns are unfounded. Skyrim was a foundational game for me, and I want to play its sequel so very badly. But the longer we go without new info to show for it, I fear the rumors we’ve shared all these years might be little more than wishful thinking.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm
