Bethesda Game Studios is currently working on The Elder Scrolls 6. After Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and Starfield, the long-awaited fantasy RPG is finally in active development alongside new Starfield content and Fallout 5. But what comes after?
We already know that Fallout 5 will be Bethesda Game Studios’ next mainline project after the release of the next Elder Scrolls game. Additionally. The Elder Scrolls 6 will likely have a number of expansions just like its predecessors, but will we have to wait another decade-plus for another single-player RPG in the series?
As part of Xbox’s major reset, there is reportedly a focus on releasing The Elder Scrolls games faster than fans are now used to. However, compared to the already announced Fallout projects—remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Fallout 5 and a new Obsidian Fallout—the only Elder Scrolls project coming is The Elder Scrolls 6.
In the past, Bethesda has been extremely protective of The Elder Scrolls as a brand. An ongoing MMO does exist, albeit under a company largely created specifically to work on the MMO. Other spin-offs have also released in the years since, but they have never been true spin-offs in the way that, say, Fallout: New Vegas was.
That’s not to say that The Elder Scrolls has never had true spin-offs. In fact, The Elder Scrolls Travels was a spin-off series designed to let others play within the world of Bethesda’s RPGs. With that said, it’s been decades since any true spin-offs released, and it’s meant that The Elder Scrolls has become a stagnant series in the 15 years since Skyrim’s release.
It’s clear that fans want more of The Elder Scrolls as well outside of the MMO. While the MMO is great and popular, there’s a hunger for single-player RPGs like never before, and The Elder Scrolls is one of the greatest RPG series around. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered sold millions of copies despite an almost complete lack of marketing. Gamers want The Elder Scrolls.
Right now, the focus outside of Bethesda’s current project is clearly slanted towards Fallout. Right now, we know of fourFallout titles in development alongside new content for Fallout 76. Officially, there’s just one Elder Scrolls title. There’s a common sentiment within the community that many of us will be dead by the time that Elder Scrolls 7 rolls around. That might be the case, but there’s no reason why other studios can’t make spin-off games in the interim, even reusing assets to spin them out quicker.
One of the interesting things with The Elder Scrolls series is that time always moves forward with new games. Daggerfall is after Arena, Morrowind after Daggerfall, etc, etc. With spin-offs, maybe we could explore existing time periods in new locations. For example, The Oblivion Crisis wasn’t just situated in Cyrodil; maybe we could see the Oblivion crisis in Black Marsh. (I recently dreamt up a roguelike adventure set during a Dragon Break which, I feel, would be very cool.)
The Elder Scrolls is, by its nature, a universe of infinite stories. It may be daunting for Bethesda to leave their baby in the hands of another, but after a 15 year wait for The Elder Scrolls 6, fans deserve to look forward to more games in the series. Even if The Elder Scrolls 7 is coming directly after Fallout 5, it likely won’t release until around 2035. That’s a long ask for fans who have already waited since 2011 for a single new entry.
It used to be that we’d only wait around three years for a new game in The Elder Scrolls series and, while I adore the revival that Fallout has received, it would be nice to have that cadence again. As far as fantasy worlds go, The Elder Scrolls is my favourite, and I’d love to see a world where we can jump into Tamriel every few years for a new story.
