It’s been 15 years since the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. While the series has continued with the online MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, fans of the single-player RPGs have been waiting over a decade-and-a-half for Bethesda’s now-in-development sequel, The Elder Scrolls 6.
In a discussion on our podcast, which we’ve embedded below, we asked Skyrim co-lead and former loremaster Kurt Kuhlmann why Bethesda never decided to push for a Fallout: New Vegas-style spin-off for The Elder Scrolls. It’s worth noting that recent claims of a spin-off game in development were debunked.
Kuhlmann, who admitted many developers would’ve preferred to have worked on The Elder Scrolls 6 instead of Starfield, never confirmed whether or not any discussions were had about a potential spin-off, although they seem unlikely. With that said, they explained that there is a high amount of protection that Todd Howard, and Bethesda in general, have given to the series.
For years now, fans have wondered why there was never an attempt at a New Vegas attempt for Skyrim, especially as they’ve now had to wait so long. “The whole New Vegas thing did create this, at least the perception of this, ‘who makes a better Fallout game?’ Oh, they should just give it to Obsidian’,” Kuhlmann told us. “There are the Obsidian, New Vegas people that think obviously New Vegas is way better, Obsidian is way better at making those games, and why don’t they just get Fallout altogether.”
Kuhlmann explained that they “don’t know that Todd wanted to create that situation again for The Elder Scrolls”. While Fallout is a series that Bethesda bought in and already has the fingerprints of other creatives on it, The Elder Scrolls is wholly Bethesda with a unique setting, and deeply beloved lore.
“Todd, from my time there, he is very protective of it,” Kuhlmann continued. “I do think ESO took the heat off… there was a new Elder Scrolls product and it was ongoing. It was creating new content constantly. There are a lot of people, I mean, I know the single-player people, I’m one of those people–but there are a lot of people to whom The Elder Scrolls is now ESO. That’s their experience with it. That’s what they love. That’s where they got their Elder Scrolls gaming experience, and that’s probably what they want more of.”
The Skyrim co-lead explained they believe “ESO was their ‘we’re doing something with Elder Scrolls’” push so Bethesda could focus on Starfield. It makes sense. While ESO is definitely not for everyone, there is a substantial amount of high-quality stories that have been added to the MMO in the years since Skyrim’s release.
There’s also the past of Elder Scrolls RPGs handled by other studios. The last official RPG in the series to be developed outside of Bethesda Game Studios was 2004’s Nokia N-GAGE exclusive The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey. Afterwards, an Oblivion PSP game was in the works, but it was scrapped. Since then, the only official Elder Scrolls spin-offs have been the aforementioned MMO, which Bethesda has overseen at points, and mobile games.
Nevertheless, The Elder Scrolls 6 is in active development, and will benefit from major engine overhauls over Starfield. While we’re not sure where the new entry is set, Kuhlmann posits that it definitely won’t be Black Marsh, the upcoming adventure will hopefully release sometime before the end of the decade.
