Todd Howard says The Elder Scrolls 6 is “still a long way off,” but Bethesda is working on it more than Fallout 76 — “We did a big play test yesterday”

He adds that while hundreds of people are busy on Fallout-related projects like Fallout 76 and other initiatives, The Elder Scrolls 6 is the studio’s daily priority.

Howard also hinted that the surprise release of Oblivion Remastered earlier this year might have been a dry run for a larger, darker surprise launch for The Elder Scrolls 6.

“You might say that was a test run,” he told GQ about the Oblivion drop. “It worked out well.”

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“I prefer to announce titles and then release them,” Howard says. “My ideal — and I’m not promising this will happen — is that after a long wait, the game will simply appear one day.”

Now, a full 14 years after The Elder Scrolls V launched, many series devotees are prepared to accept whatever scraps of news they can get. Some fans have even started treating The Elder Scrolls 6 as one of those unlikely pipe dreams — akin to having dinner with Bigfoot.

“Not trying to be a dick or anything,” reads a recent post in The Elder Scrolls 6 subreddit, questioning the community’s optimism for a 2026 launch. Read the thread on Reddit.

“I don’t want fans to feel anxious,” Howard adds, acknowledging the community’s impatience.

The Elder Scrolls 6 will include an NPC created in memory of a devoted fan, thanks to the efforts of the RPG community’s most committed lorekeepers — and an $85,000 contribution: “We just finished up a meeting with Bethesda.”