Bethesda explains why it announced The Elder Scrolls VI even though it’s obviously not out for ages

Bethesda explains why it announced The Elder Scrolls VI even though it’s obviously not out for ages
Mike Harradence Updated on by

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Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI at E3 last week to a rapturous reception, despite the fact all we got was a logo and a fancy fantasy backdrop. 

To be honest, that's probably all we're going to get for a while. So, why announce the game so early and when there's nothing really to see?

Bethesda mouthpiece Pete Hines shed some light on that particular question during a chinwag with FZ.se, where he revealed the decision was essentially down to the fact the studio wanted to give players a better overview of its future plans.

'A couple of years ago I talked to Todd [Howard] about clarifying with everybody that TES6 was not going to be our next game, and we had two other big games that we wanted to do first. So we had already put that out there several years ago, but we were very vague on what those other two titles were,' explained Hines.

'So it was just in conversations with him [and] folks on my team to say, look, why don’t we consider putting out a little bit more of a roadmap for the studio that explains to folks, ‘Here’s what we’re doing—yes, we’re making this game called Starfield and here’s what it is, and yes, we’re going to make Elder Scrolls 6, but we have these other two games to develop and make first.’ It’s just so that folks have a better sense of where we are and where we’re headed.'

Howard actually knows when The Elder Scrolls VI is coming out, but he's keeping mum. However, he did say last week that the fantasy-RPG is in the pre-production stage, so it's obviously still a long ways off.

As such, we wouldn't be at all surprised if the game will come out on next-generation platforms, or perhaps even be a cross-gen effort.