Bethesda finally nudged The Elder Scrolls 6 out of the shadows and promised a return to the RPG roots that made Skyrim untouchable.
As of February 2026, the studio began to pry open the long-sealed “black box” around The Elder Scrolls 6. The 2018 teaser offered little more than a sweeping coastline and a title card, and every public appearance since then carried the same question: where is it?
In the meantime, Bethesda shipped Fallout 76, launched Starfield, and absorbed years of speculation about Hammerfell, the Iliac Bay, and what exactly the team had been building behind closed doors. Early 2024 updates confirmed internal builds were playable, but fans still lacked a clear sense of direction.
On February 18, 2026, Todd Howard finally gave them one during an appearance on the Kinda Funny Gamescast.
Todd Howard admits Fallout 76 and Starfield were detours
When asked whether Bethesda had locked itself into a single design philosophy or continued absorbing outside influence, Howard leaned into the studio’s identity. “I think if you look at our games, we sort of always evolved,” he said.
Then he drew a sharp contrast: “In many ways Fallout 76 and Starfield are a little bit of a creative detour from kind of that classic Elder Scrolls…Fallout,” he explained, pointing to “Skyrim or Fallout 3 or Fallout 4, where you’re exploring a world in a certain way.”
With The Elder Scrolls 6, that detour ends. “As we come back to Elder Scrolls 6 that we’re doing now, we’re coming back to that kind of classic style that we’ve missed, that we know really, really well.”
The return is not nostalgic hand-waving alone, since it actually rides on upgraded tech. Howard confirmed the team spent years transforming Creation Engine 2 into Creation Engine 3, which “is going to power Elder Scrolls 6 and beyond.” He highlighted improvements to world systems and the way Bethesda now handles “how we get that detail close to the camera kind of immediately,” all in service of a denser, more seamless world.
Howard kept story details guarded. “We know where the game is set. We know some things we’re doing,” he said, while cautioning that it is “gonna be a while yet.”
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