Bethesda Boss Todd Howard Says He Wants Elder Scrolls VI “To Fill That Role Of The Ultimate Fantasy-World Simulator”
John F. Trent
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Bethesda Game Studios Game Director and Executive Producer Todd Howard recently shared what he wants to achieve with the upcoming Elder Scrolls VI.
The Elder Scrolls Online (2014), Bethesda Softworks
Speaking with GQ about Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi role-playing game Starfield, Howard was asked what he wants to achieve with Elder Scrolls VI.
He answered, “It’s like… I don’t want to answer, but I want to be polite. I will say that we want it to fill that role of the ultimate fantasy-world simulator.”
“And there are different ways to accomplish that given the time that has passed,” he added.
Todd Howard via Lex Fridman YouTube
It’s likely a lot more time will pass before gamers get to explore the world of Elder Scrolls VI. During the FTC vs. Microsoft trial, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said, “With Elder Scrolls VI, it’s so far out–it’s hard to understand what platforms it will even be at this point. It’s the same team that’s finishing Starfield, which comes out this September.
He then stated, “So we’re talking about a game that’s like five-plus years away.”
A dragon breathes fire in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), Bethesda
The game was first announced by Bethesda back in June 2018 with an official teaser trailer.
As you can see below, the teaser trailer was an aerial shot of mountainous terrain accompanied by music that sounds similar to the Uruk Hai theme in The Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson.
When asked by GQ if he regrets announcing the game when he did, Howard stated, “I have asked myself that a lot. I don’t know. I probably would’ve announced it more casually.”
However, he previously told IGN back in 2019, “The gap in between is going to be long, It already is. On one hand, I think it’s good to miss things. I think that makes people come to it with really, really fresh eyes, and I think when they eventually—eventually—see the game and what we have in mind, they’ll understand the gap more in terms of technology and what we want it to do.”
The Elder Scrolls Online (2014), Bethesda Softworks
In an interview with Lex Fridman back in November 2022, Howard shared his desire that the game would be coming out soon. He said, “I wish it was soon. We want them out too. And I wish they didn’t take as long as they did, but they do.”
He then added, “Look, if I could go back in time it would never have been my plan to wait as long as its taken for it.”
In that same interview with Fridman, Howard also revealed how far they had gotten into development for Elder Scrolls VI while discussing how they make their games, “So take Elder Scrolls VI, we figured out where it’s set, what’s the tone, what are the big features. We discussed the beginning of the game, which we’ve had for a very long time. Then I like to do music. So we’ve already done a take on the music for Elder Scrolls VI.”
The player character rises amidst the fire in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), Bethesda
As for why Bethesda chose to announce Elder Scrolls VI back in 2018 despite making it clear they would be prioritizing development resources on Starfield, Bethesda’s VP of Marketing Pete Hines explained to FZ.se, “So it was just in conversations with him [and] folks on my team to say, look, why don’t we consider putting out a little bit more of a roadmap for the studio that explains to folks, ‘Here’s what we’re doing—yes, we’re making this game called Starfield and here’s what it is, and yes, we’re going to make Elder Scrolls VI, but we have these other two games to develop and make first.’ It’s just so that folks have a better sense of where we are and where we’re headed. I just felt like that was important.”
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