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Elder Scrolls 6 Was Announced 5 Years Ago This Week

Five years ago, Bethesda announced a big new game, and then went pretty much silent.

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The Elder Scrolls VI is one of the most-anticipated upcoming games across the video game industry, and it's about to reach an anniversary of sorts. The game was officially announced on June 10, 2018 as part of Bethesda's own E3 event that year.

The announcement trailer didn't reveal much but showed off a massive, sprawling world that fans got pretty excited to learn more about. What fans might not have expected, however, was that five years would pass without Bethesda providing any further significant information. In any event, you can re-watch the original trailer below.

A lot has changed since The Elder Scrolls VI was announced. Microsoft announced it would acquire Bethesda parent company ZeniMax in September 2020 and closed the deal in March 2021. Because of that, The Elder Scrolls VI is now a Microsoft game, and its exclusivity status has been one of the biggest talking points around the game over the years.

It's expected that The Elder Scrolls VI, similar to Starfield, will be exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC.

As for what we know about The Elder Scrolls VI, despite being announced five years ago, Bethesda has not said much. What we do know is that the game is promising something fans have been asking for, and that is a new technology framework underpinning it. The overhaul to the engine is "probably the largest we've ever had, maybe even larger than Morrowind to Oblivion," game director Todd Howard said.

The story, setting, characters, and other crucial information about the game remain a mystery, however. One theory people have as to why Bethesda announced the game so long ago is that the announcement was part of an effort to recruit staff.

Will The Elder Scrolls VI show up at Xbox Games Showcase on June 11? We don't know. But what is confirmed is that Bethesda Game Studios' next release is Starfield, which releases in September and is getting its own Starfield Direct event on June 11 as well.

Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI aren't the only games that Bethesda Game Studios has in the works, as the team is also making Fallout 5.

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Catari64

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I'm pretty sure they just announced it to attract talent, "Work on starfield for over half a decade and then maybe you'll get to make ES6!"

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BxMxS2004

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Edited By BxMxS2004

Im convinced that, nowadays, most big games announced that havent been released are vaporware. I doubt we will see Elder Scrolls 6 until the next next gen cycle, a minimum of 5 years down the road. As for Fallout 5? I'm 40 and I don't expect to see it until Im in my mid-50s. Game development goes on WAYYYY too long these days. And usually it isn't even worth it! The difference between Oblivion nd Skyrim was huge and it was a mere 5 years...which seemed long at the time. By the time we get Part 6 it will have been at least 16 years since Skyrim. Meaning people who bought the game when they graduated from highschool will be nearly middle aged by the release of the sequel. Its beyond ridiculous. Same goes for Rockstar and GTA.

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pmanden

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Should be called The Very Old Scrolls 6 because of the extreme waiting time.

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hardwenzen

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Edited By hardwenzen

And at least 3 years from coming out. Wtf was the point of even showing it?

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RestatBonfire

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Maybe 10 years ago I'd be excited. I don't care anymore.

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tsunami2311

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and it will be 5 more years before we get it, We dont want to be patch by community for 10+ year cause they didnt do there job do we?

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StickEmUp

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Microsoft is in an interesting position with Elder Scrolls and Fallout. If they want to make their purchase of ZeniMax worth it, they need to release them on PlayStation, but if they want to attempt to bring people to Xbox, they need to keep them exclusive.

They won’t bring that many people to Xbox, because that ship sailed long ago, but they’ll bring some and maybe it’ll be enough for them. That’s not even me hating on Xbox. That’s just how it is.

When you’re playing catch-up for a decade, in this industry, you’re just not going to catch up. I’m genuinely curious to see what they end up doing. Though, I’m going with Microsoft keeping them exclusive.

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

I wonder how much work has actually been done on ES6 since then.

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Catari64

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@mogan: Probably just the HR team hard at work trying to hire as many people as possible before development actually starts.

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m4a5

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Edited By m4a5

With a game of this scope, I am glad to see they're taking their time.

It's not like they've ported Skyrim to every platform yet lol

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