At long last, Bethesda has announced that it is officially working on a brand new Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls VI – or 6, to keep it simple. Fans of the fantasy RPG series have been waiting a long, long time for this news as Skyrim, the previous entry in series, was released way back in 2011.
And now the sequel was confirmed during Bethesda’s E3 conference via a majestic, albeit incredibly short, teaser trailer. Tease is the operative word here, because we have no gameplay footage, no word about the setting or story, no release date, and no console details.
Just a really pretty view of a coastline with some mountains in the distance. But we’ll take it over nothing.
Although Elder Scrolls fans have been kept busy with endless re-releases of Skyrim on every conceivable console, platform and medium, they have really been wanting a brand new game. The Elder Scrolls Online, while popular, has hardly kept their hunger for a sequel at bay.
The grand unveiling of the next Elder Scrolls game came at the climax of Bethesda’s barnstorming E3 conference, in which they also showcased twenty minutes of gameplay for the upcoming Fallout 76, as well as announcing a brand new Sci-Fi franchise called Starfield.
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That’s not it for Elder Scrolls content, however, because Bethesda also revealed mobile spin-off TES Blades. Blades is a free-to-play title for Android and iOS in which players battle through dungeons via taps and swipes of the touchscreen to kill all manner of supernatural nasties while hunting for treasure.
Blades is most likely a way to tide people over until the eventual release of TES 6, but for a mobile game it does look impressive. All in first person, with “console graphics” (it looks better than Oblivion, not as good as Skyrim), this will be full-blown open world RPG packed full of both hand-crafted and procedurally generated dungeons and missions. In this respect, it’s reminiscent of the very first Elder Scrolls game, Arena. Players can also engage in extensive character customisation, and collect resources to build their own base.
The Elder Scrolls 6 release date: When will TES 6 come out?
The Elder Scrolls 6 is a while away from hitting the shelves. Yes, it is in pre-production, but with Fallout 76 and Starfield on the way, we imagine the majority of their resources are still being spent on these titles.
In the documentary ‘The History of Bethesda Studios’, Todd Howard revealed that pre-production is always well underway on the developers’ next game while the current game is in its final phase. So work has definitely begun on TES 6, but we may not see any gameplay for a while. Based on the gaps between Oblivion and Skyrim’s reveal dates compared to their release dates, we predict that TES 6 won’t come out until 2020.
The Elder Scrolls 6 setting: Where will TES 6 take place?
All games in the Elder Scrolls series take place in the fictional realm of Tamriel. Skyrim was set in, well, Skyrim, which is in the snowy northern region of the fantastical continent, while Oblivion took place in the central land of Cyrodil, home to the Imperial city. Other areas in Tamriel covered in previous games include Morrowind, Hammerfell, and High Rock.
Based on the rocky, beachy vista we’re treated to in TES 6 teaser, initial predictions online have been centred on High Rock, in the North Western region of Tamriel. However, since that region did appear TES II: Daggerfall, we could also expect to see somewhere entirely new. Could it be in the home of the Bosmser wood elves, Valenwood? Or maybe it will take place among the swampy backwaters of Black Marsh, which also has its fair share of coastal real estate.
Rumours about the setting will no doubt circulate ad nauseum, but until we have seen more footage or get an official announcement from Bethesda, or the game’s location is leaked – like the time when Kotaku spilled the beans on the Fallout 4 Boston location – we’ll just have to sit tight and wait.