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Delaying GTA 6 is the "smartest thing" Rockstar could do, Elder Scrolls 6 lead says, because fans wouldn't want something that "doesn't meet their expectations"

News
By Anthony McGlynn published 17 December 2025

Bethesda and Rockstar know a thing or three about meeting anticipation

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GTA 6
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)
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We might be waiting a while for The Elder Scrolls 6, and by that I mean, a long while. But much like GTA 6, games of this scale take as much time as necessary to make. In a show of solidarity, one Bethesda lead is clear: Rockstar made the right call delaying its new crime simulator, because making sure it's ready should always be the greatest priority.

"GTA [6] just got pushed again, which was the smartest thing they could do," Emil Pagliarulo, studio design director at Bethesda told Game Informer, "because a game the size of these games, they take not just a long time to make, but a long time to spit and polish and iron out the bugs."

He boils the situation down to a simple ultimatum for eager fans: "Do they want a game that comes out before it should and doesn't meet their expectations? Or do they want the turkey that is in the oven for long enough to be delicious when it finally comes out of the oven, you know?"

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Watch On

What he's saying holds a lot of water. Cyberpunk 2077 is a modern benchmark here, launching in a clearly unfinished state and leaving many players with sour feelings as a result. Fallout: New Vegas is another example. It creates a difficult situation for the studio, which then has to try and repair the damage amid post-launch support.

These are games designed to be played for years and years and years - Skyrim got yet another port just this month, 14 years after it first released. There's no predictable timescale for getting these sorts of projects right. "We're going to take our time and as long as it needs to be to be great," Pagliarulo finishes.

That's really all we can ask for when it comes to the sixth mainline The Elder Scrolls. Besides, it could always be worse: imagine how much longer we have to go for Fallout 5.

Bethesda's Todd Howard says Fallout 76 is "the game we're still doing the most work in," and fans of the Prime TV show should give it a try

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TOPICS
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Anthony McGlynn
Anthony McGlynn
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Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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