"Early builds" of The Elder Scrolls 6 are being played at Bethesda, offering the same "joy, excitement, and promise of adventure" as the rest of the series' 30-year history

"Early builds" of The Elder Scrolls 6 are being played at Bethesda, as the studio celebrates 30 years of its iconic fantasy RPG series.

In a post outlining three decades of The Elder Scrolls - starting in 1994 with Arena, Bethesda said that it has "other exciting projects underway" in addition to all of its classic back catalogue. Those projects are something of a rogue's gallery - The Elder Scrolls: Castles is a mobile game that's in the midst of a peculiarly low-key rollout, while Skyrim's new Creations community content system has not proven particularly popular with modders.

Nevertheless, that doesn't stop Bethesda from pointing swiftly towards The Elder Scrolls 6. Six years on from that game's reveal at E3 2018, the studio has reconfirmed that it's still "in development on the next chapter," but it's also offered perhaps the first clue as to how that development is actually going. The statement reads that "returning to Tamriel and playing early builds has us filled with the same joy, excitement, and promise of adventure."

It's been a long time since we first got official word of The Elder Scrolls 6, and that's partially by design - last year, lead Skyrim designer Bruce Nesmith suggested that we likely wouldn't learn much about the new RPG until shortly before its release. Given that the game isn't actually expected until 2026 - and could well launch later than that - you've probably got a good while to wait. For now, then, it's just speculation - the setting, timeline, and even the name of The Elder Scrolls 6 remain little more than guesswork, and although it's good to know that Bethesda is making progress, we'll probably get another couple of Skyrim ports before its successor is ready to step into the light.

Back in August, we learned that The Elder Scrolls 6 had moved out of pre-production.