The Elder Scrolls 6 is 'Still a long ways off' says Todd Howard, but the slyboots says the Oblivion shadowdrop was 'A test run' and a select few have already played it

An image of Todd Howard in the middle of explaining a concept using hand gestures.

Bethesda has all sorts of irons in the fire right now. There's the second season of the Fallout TV show on the horizon, a 10th-anniversary version of Fallout 4, whatever's happening with Starfield, and Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online MMO stuff bubbling away contentedly in the background.

But more likely than not, all you want to know is what's going on with The Elder Scrolls 6. Well, great news: in a recent chat with GQ, Bethesda big boss Todd Howard said that "The Elder Scrolls 6 is the everyday thing" that its devs are working on right now.

Howard says likes to have a "break" between Elder Scrolls games—to avoid them becoming rote and predictable—but admits that while "It’s also good for an audience to have a break—The Elder Scrolls has been too long." Boy, has it—it has been, for those not keeping track, a full 14 years since Skyrim first released, which was itself a mere five years after Oblivion.

Howard says he recently oversaw a "three-hour play test of The Elder Scrolls 6" for fans who raised money for the Make-A-Wish foundation to get a character made (that'd be the UESP editors who recently visited Bethesda to create a memorial character for community member Loranna Pyrel). "We spent an hour-and-a-half or so for them to tell us about their character, talk about the game, about why they love The Elder Scrolls, what they want to see from a new one," said Howard. "I think we’re aligned."

Does that mean, then, that TES 6 is right around the corner? Ah, well, no. Howard cautions us that the game is "still a long way off," but he does say something a little tantalising.

This is how it will feel when TES 6 releases. (Image credit: Bethesda)

"I like to just announce stuff and release it. My perfect version—and I’m not saying this is going to happen—is that it's going to be a while and then, one day, the game will just appear." You know, a bit like Bethesda did with Oblivion Remastered earlier this year. "You might say that was a test run," says Howard. "It worked out well."

Now, I don't believe for one second that Microsoft would let a brand new TES game release without a massive marketing blitz beforehand, but maybe Howard's preferences will make that period a little shorter than it usually is. Maybe, when we find ourselves in the thick of the run-up to a sixth Elder Scrolls, we'll be shocked to find that era only lasts months, not years.