XBOX CEO Asha Sharma has played a live build of The Elder Scrolls VI, giving us a rare indication of how far Bethesda’s long-awaited RPG has progressed.
In her post on X, Sharma said she had a live playthrough this morning and praised the game’s scale, grandeur, and story. She also made sure to censor the game’s subtitle.
Live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls VI: ******** this morning. The scale and grandeur are incredible. The story is even greater.
— ASHA (@asha_shar) August 11, 2026
Unfortunately, Sharma did not share any footage or any other information on the development state, release, or the in-game details. Still, this is not a random exclamation from the CEO of a major gaming company, and the fact that someone else other than the developers themselves has played it is already very encouraging.
The existence of a playable build itself is not new information, as Bethesda said in March 2024 that developers were already playing early builds of The Elder Scrolls VI, while development moved out of pre-production and into full production after Starfield was completed in 2023. The game is being built on Creation Engine 3, which will also form the technological foundation for Fallout 5.
Todd Howard has also become increasingly more willing to discuss its progress during 2026, although he still refuses to reveal much about the game itself. In June, he said The Elder Scrolls VI was Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest current project and that most of the studio was working on it. He also acknowledged the expectations surrounding a sequel to Skyrim, saying Bethesda knows it needs to get the game right after such a long wait.
That wait started with an announcement Bethesda probably would not make the same way today, as The Elder Scrolls VI was revealed at E3 2018 with an infamous and brief landscape teaser. Howard explained in his March 2026 interview with IGN that Bethesda wanted players to know another single-player Elder Scrolls was coming while it introduced new projects, but said early announcements are generally not his preference. He jokingly told fans to pretend the 2018 announcement never happened.
Bethesda was one of the studios hit with the recent XBOX layoffs, with more than 50 employees reportedly affected, including developers working across programming, art, design, and QA. There were concerns that this would affect the development, but Bethesda later said the development roadmap for The Elder Scrolls VI had not changed. Howard also addressed the layoffs in July, calling them personally difficult for him and Bethesda’s teams.
Unfortunately, there is still no release date or any gameplay footage for The Elder Scrolls VI. Bethesda has shown nothing publicly after the 2018 teaser, and even the setting remains unconfirmed. Let’s hope Sharma’s comment is not just a passing whimsy, and we’ll have some substantial information soon.
