Todd Howard confirms that The Elder Scrolls 6 is Bethesda’s top priority.
Bethesda has revealed plans to launch Starfield on PlayStation 5 on April 7, accompanied by a host of new content and enhancements for its space exploration RPG. In a detailed interview, studio head and creative director Todd Howard shared some intriguing insights about the development of The Elder Scrolls 6, although he kept specifics about the game’s narrative and world under wraps. He did, however, provide updates on the studio’s progress and thoughts on core RPG mechanics.
It’s well-known that AAA titles like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 undergo extensive development cycles. Howard explained that Bethesda Game Studios typically starts with a smaller “pre-production” team for two to three years to ensure a solid foundation. Once the vision is clear, the team expands to bring that vision to life. “We’re at that point with The Elder Scrolls 6 where the bulk of the studio is on it, a lot of our partners are on it, and we know, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing.’ So that’s a good place to get to,” Howard noted.
While the studio will continue to support live-service games like Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online, as well as future content for Starfield, it seems that the majority of Bethesda’s workforce is currently focused on the next Elder Scrolls installment. This doesn’t provide a timeline for release, but it does imply that The Elder Scrolls 6 is in a playable state, moving beyond the mere title card revealed back in 2018.
“We’re in a fortunate position where the builds of the game are really consistently working every day. Well, not every day, but we’ve had more days than we’ve ever had where the build is good, there’s new stuff in it, and we can play it,” Howard shared.
In the same interview, when discussing innovation in the RPG genre, Howard referenced Oblivion, hinting at his vision for The Elder Scrolls 6, particularly regarding character builds. “After Oblivion, I felt very strongly about this. And I was seeing this a lot and thinking, ‘I don’t want that in my games.’ I don’t want someone to be like, ‘I made a mistake several hours ago and I have no way of correcting it,'” he explained, emphasizing that games like Skyrim and Starfield offered more flexibility in this area. “I think there are games out there that do quite a good job with the scarcity of builds. And so as we look forward, is there a way to have the best of both worlds where you can course correct, but there’s still some scarcity?”
Currently, you can’t reallocate your skill points in Starfield, but Howard’s remarks suggest that The Elder Scrolls 6 might introduce some changes to that rule. Perhaps.
