Bilawal Bashir 
Starfield is effectively set to launch and that means Bethesda Game Studios can finally turn its attention to The Elder Scrolls 6. Don’t expect it any time soon, though.
The popular Bethesda RPG series is well known for its deep character customization, open-world exploration, and dense lore. Naturally, players craving the signature Bethesda Game Studios flavor of RPGs are looking forward to the next Elder Scrolls game. The last entry, Skyrim, came out in 2011 and the team has released Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and Starfield in the 12 years since.
While Starfield will inherently need post-release patches and will almost certainly receive DLC, the next big thing on the studio’s plate is The Elder Scrolls 6. Unfortunately, players aren’t going to have their hands on it anytime soon.
When is The Elder Scrolls 6 coming out?
The Elder Scrolls 6 may not come out until 2028 or later. There is no official release window but the game just entered early development and will likely need several years of work.
Modern AAA games take a lot of time to develop, and the time gets even longer if the developers are making an RPG. Bethesda Game Studios took seven years to make Starfield and Skyrim took six years as well. Going by the company’s own standards, it wouldn’t be surprising if The Elder Scrolls 6 didn’t come out until close to 2030.
In 2023, Xbox head Phil Spencer stated that The Elder Scrolls is “five-plus years away” from being released. This came during the FTC hearings regarding Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Bethesda Softworks’ head of publishing Pete Hines recently spoke with Vandal and discussed the state of the company and at least partly corroborated this. Hines also elaborated that a few members of the Bethesda Game Studios team are already working on The Elder Scrolls 6 but fans shouldn’t get their hopes up about a potential release yet. Hines stated that the beloved RPG series won’t return until “a few years after” Starfield.
“It’s in development, but it’s in early development,” Hines clarified.
Bethesda Softworks is set to publish a number of other games in the interim. The publisher may surprise fans with a surprise release like Hi-Fi Rush but officially, its next release is MachineGames’ unnamed Indiana Jones title.
Will The Elder Scrolls 6 be on PlayStation?
In 2023, Xbox head Phil Spencer expressed that he’s not sure what platforms The Elder Scrolls 6 will ship on. While Activision is contractually obligated to continue releasing Call of Duty games on PlayStation for several more years, that’s not the case with other titles under the Microsoft umbrella.
Bethesda Studios is now owned by Microsoft, the maker of Xbox. If The Elder Scrolls 6 was shipping today, its chances of being on PlayStation consoles are low. This can be seen with Bethesda Softworks’ Starfield and Redfall, which were released on Xbox Series X/S and PC but not PlayStation consoles.
Microsoft has not completely pulled established series from Sony’s consoles yet. Minecraft Legends was published by Xbox Game Studios but was released simultaneously on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch consoles in April. Hope isn’t lost for the game being released on PlayStation consoles, but it’s anyone’s guess what the gaming landscape will even look like by 2028.
