The Elder Scrolls Blades early access is live and you might be able to play right now

Bethesda opened The Elder Scrolls Blades for testing this week, and it's now letting in waves of the players who signed up for early access. You can still register on the official website but it may be a while longer before you get to try it out.

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Bethesda says you'll get an email notification once your account is cleared for play. However, I've heard several people (including one who works at GR+) saying they tried out the game and found they could play before they ever got the email. So if you signed up in the past (and have decent wifi) you might as well give it a shot.

One big caveat: The Elder Scrolls Blades has an intro cinematic that plays as soon as you load it up, and that rolls straight into a brief combat tutorial. Don't let them get your hopes up. You'll need to sign in with your Bethesda account as soon as the tutorial ends and that's when you can tell if you're cleared to play the whole thing.

You'll also want to make sure you're sporting one of the currently supported devices before you log in. Here's the current list:

  • iPhone 6s and newer
  • iPhone SE
  • iPad Pro
  • iPad Mini 4 and 5
  • iPad Air 2 and 3
  • Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+
  • Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+
  • Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 8
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 9
  • Google Pixel 2/2XL
  • Google Pixel 3/3XL
  • OnePlus 5 and newer
  • Moto Z2 and newer
  • Essential Phone
  • HTC U11/U11+
  • HTC U12+
  • LG V30
  • LG G7 One
  • Xiaomi Mi 6
  • Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
  • Xperia XZ Premium
  • Xperia XZ1
  • Razer Phone
  • ZTE Nubia Z17
  • Nokia 8
  • Sharp Aquos R
  • Asus ZenFone 4 Pro
  • Huawei P20/P20 Pro
  • Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  • OnePlus 6T

If you're stuck waiting to play Blades, don't miss your chance to get The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind for free, or check out our video guide to stuff you have to see in Skyrim.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.