The director of The Elder Scrolls 6, Todd Howard, has some good news for fans of the RPG series looking forward to the next and long-awaited installment. Bethesda Game Studios is currently primarily focused on shipping Starfield next year, but after that, the studio will shift its focus to The Elder Scrolls 6. Ahead of this, the aforementioned Howard has been talking about the game a bit more and getting fans to board the hype train early with big claims like a recent one where the visionary behind the series boldly declares it will be around for decades, which of course is good news for fans as it means it’s being built to last for decades and will be supported with this goal in mind as well.
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It’s roughly been a decade since the release of Skyrim, and it continues to live on, partially due the quality of the base product, but also because of Bethesda’s commitment to post-launch support and re-releasing the game. In other words, the quote doesn’t come out of left field, but a decade vs two or more decades are very different things. Some games manage to live for a decade, but rarely two or more.
“We’re going to make sure we do it right for everybody,” said Howard speaking with Lex Fridman. “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.”
“People will probably be playing it 10 years from now also, so you have to think, okay, 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,” added Howard.
As alluded to, Skyrim was supported not only with a substantial amount of DLC content that added hours and hours of content to the game, but it’s been re-released many times and Bethesda has supported the game’s community, especially the modding community. And all of this is key, as is the amount of time between Skyrim and its follow-up. When Elder Scrolls 6 comes out it’s going to take players away from revisiting Skyrim. All of this is to say, if Bethesda has big plans for The Elder Scrolls 6 beyond its release, then it may be safe to assume another decade or so will pass before it gets its own follow-up.
Unfortunately, Howard doesn’t elaborate on what he means when he says it “changes the way you think about how you architect it from the get-go.” This could be a throwaway, PR-ish line, but it seems unlikely. Whatever the case, the quotes above have players more excited than ever to play the next installment in The Elder Scrolls series.
