Bethesda E3 2017: Exec Explains Why Elder Scrolls 6 Not Happening Soon Is A Good Move

Given the enormous commercial success and continued popularity of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it should come as no surprise that Bethesda Game Studios is making The Elder Scrolls VI. Bethesda has confirmed this on multiple occasions. Speaking to GameSpot today, Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines gave us more insight into why the game isn't coming soon, and why that might be in the best interest of the game and the people making it.

But first, he confirmed yet again that the game will happen ... someday. As of "The Elder Scrolls VI will eventually be made," Hines said. "It is multiple big releases down the plan for those folks [at Bethesda Game Studios]." As of August 2016, The Elder Scrolls VI was not in production, and it sounds like it still is, not that Bethesda ever said it would be by this point.

In 2016, Bethesda boss Todd Howard teased three "big and crazy" projects that the studio is working on. There is no word yet on what form these games might take or how many are in the works at Bethesda Game Studios between its Maryland and Montreal studios.

Hines told GameSpot today that Howard's team wanted to "work on some other stuff and do some other things" after releasing Fallout 4, which has surpassed Skyrim to become Bethesda's most successful game ever. He added that Bethesda Game Studios did not want to be known as a developer that only made Elder Scrolls and Fallout games.

"Quite honestly, they didn't want to be the developer that was just Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Fallout for the rest of their development careers," Hines said. "And you've got a lot of people in that studio who have been there for a really long time. They wanted to be able to self-determine things they worked on next, whether it was existing stuff whether it was new IP.

"And I think Todd and his team have earned the right, given the quality of this stuff, to be able to say, 'We know everybody really wants Elder Scrolls VI, but we as creative people want to be able to do stuff that we're really passionate about.' And I think once you see how the next two titles come out and then how Elder Scrolls 6 ties into what those games are doing and about, I think it'll all make sense. But I think it's going to be a while before all those things happen."

Also in our chat with Hines, he confirmed that Fallout and Elder Scrolls are not in the same universe and responded to concerns that the new Creation Club system is essentially paid mods 2.0. While you'll have to wait a while longer to play The Elder Scrolls 6, Skyrim is coming to a new platform, Nintendo Switch, later this year, while Skyrim VR is also on the way.

For more on Bethesda's E3 announcements, be sure to check out GameSpot's roundup of all the big news from the company's briefing, which included announcements for The Evil Within II and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. You can also read GameSpot's breakdown of the highs, lows, and biggest games from Bethesda's E3 2017 briefing.