Despite being largely an interview about Fallout 4 (the Anniversary Edition, which celebrates the game's tenth birthday, launches today), the article published today on GQ, featuring a conversation with Todd Howard, actually begins with The Elder Scrolls VI.
The game designer obviously knew that questions about the most anticipated game in Bethesda's pipeline would abound and prefaces the whole interview with the notion that the next iteration in The Elder Scrolls franchise is 'still a long way off', before adding that he's preaching patience to fans. Howard then admits that it's been too long since Skyrim, which launched in November 2011, but adds that the team as a whole needed a 'creative reset', which they tried to accomplish with Starfield and its different setting.
Later in the interview, after talking a bit about Fallout and the upcoming second season of the Amazon Prime Video TV series, Howard returns to TES VI. Apparently, there was a large playtest session just yesterday at Bethesda Game Studios:
We did a big play test yesterday for The Elder Scrolls VI, and you have to really look at the screen and say, “What is this? What does this need? Where are we at?” Great games are played, not made. The screen doesn’t lie.
Apparently, the team showed The Elder Scrolls VI to some fans who pulled funds via Make-A-Wish to commemorate a friend of theirs in the upcoming game. It's not the first time Bethesda has done something like this: they also recently showed the game to some folks from the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, who left excited about the upcoming title.
In the GQ interview, Howard then says his perfect way to release the massively anticipated roleplaying game would be that, after 'a while', the game 'just appears'. He doesn't guarantee it will go this way, but when asked about the shadow-drop of Oblivion Remastered, the developer remarks:
You might say that was a test run. It worked out well.
Honestly, though, I doubt that will be the case. Microsoft will likely want to give the game, which was formally announced at E3 2018 alongside Starfield, at least some lead time. More likely is a scenario akin to Fallout 4, where Howard unveiled the game at E3 2015 and then released it five months later on November 10, 2015. That would still be a relatively short lead time for a triple-A game of this hype.
Our best estimate at this point puts the game in a tentative late 2027 launch window at the earliest, although the first half of 2028 is even more likely. It wouldn't be the first time for an Elder Scrolls launch, either, as Oblivion was released in March 2006. Meanwhile, we'll report on any noteworthy The Elder Scrolls VI rumors.
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