Bethesda is finally working on The Elder Scrolls VI, years after announcing it alongside Starfield, with many assuming the announcement was just made to please fans. Those assumptions were correct, as a former Bethesda developer has confirmed the game’s early reveal was just to make fans happy.
In an interview with PCGamesN, former Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith revealed that the announcement was made due to fans growing impatient. Nesmith says that this was due to many fans getting angry at Bethesda and Todd Howard for not discussing the Skyrim follow-up, leading to community panic.
“Only the fact that the pitchforks and torches were out got Todd to say ‘Yes we’re going to do Elder Scrolls 6, it’s for real it’ll happen.’” Nesmith explains. “But I’m betting you don’t hear much in the way of details until six months before release, which is the way it should be. I think that’s the best approach and [Howard’s] proven that works really well, at least for Bethesda.”
The wording suggests that Todd would have preferred announcing The Elder Scrolls VI if it was months away from release. We actually saw this strategy work really well for Howard and Bethesda when they announced Fallout 4 and released it within months. Unfortunately, they did the same for Fallout 76, which was released to poor reception, though it did get better.
Regardless, fans really wanted to learn about the new Elder Scrolls and may have been too impatient about it. Admittedly, the constant re-releases of Skyrim didn't help things, but fans could have waited a bit longer before lighting those pitchforks.
Announcing games near their release window is probably the best thing to do these days, as Nintendo and Capcom have shown. Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario RPG, and Metroid Dread were all announced a few months before release. Capcom also did the same for their more recent Resident Evil installments, starting with Resident Evil 7.
Fans have forgiven Bethesda and Todd Howard, now that Starfield has taken over their lives. The Xbox exclusive has been received positively by both critics and fans, even if it’s just Fallout in space.
Read More: Fallout New Vegas’ entire map is now playable in Fallout 4
The Elder Scrolls VI currently has no release date, at the time of writing, though it is expected to be a PC and Xbox Series exclusive.
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