The next Elder Scrolls game officially launches in September, Bethesda opens pre-registration for "spiritual successor to Fallout Shelter" that feels like management sim Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls: Castles is the next Elder Scrolls game, and while it technically soft-launched last year, it's finally launching in full next month on September 10.

Today, The Elder Scrolls: Castles appeared for just the third time over the past 11 months. The Fallout Shelter-style mobile game shadow-dropped last September, but it wasn't until January this year that Bethesda finally announced The Elder Scrolls: Castles in full, revealing it had been at the works for a number of years prior to the announcement.

Well, Bethesda's mobile game has resurfaced once again to reveal a final launch date: September 10. You can pre-register over on the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store right now to download The Elder Scrolls: Castles as soon as it's available next month, and you can look at the video just below for snippets of how the new mobile game plays.

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Director of mobile games at Bethesda, Craig Lafferty, explains in the video above that Castles is quite literally the "spiritual successor to Fallout Shelter." Bethesda's mobile take on the Fallout series, a base-building management sim, was a smash-hit success, but that probably something to do with Todd Howard himself shadow-dropping it on stage at E3 years ago.

But The Elder Scrolls: Castles seems like a more narrative-driven game, positioning you as the hand of the King, and having you make decisions with far-reaching ramifications. Otherwise, it does function a lot like Fallout Shelter - you'll be able to build your castle and customize which areas are dedicated to what, just like with the nuclear shelters.

You can also assign citizens to certain activities within your castle, and some make more sense than others, like having a talented musician play the harp in one room for people to dance to. You also need effectively keep civilization going within your four walls, so it turns out people hooking up and having kids together is actually a pretty big part of Castles.

And let's be clear: yes, this is the next Elder Scrolls game, and no, it isn't The Elder Scrolls 6. You might be waiting a fair few more years yet for that game, but last we heard back in April, Todd Howard gave a particularly promising update by revealing that Bethesda was "finding ways" to increase its output. 

Take a look over our new games 2024 guide for a dive into all the other brand new titles launching throughout the rest of the year.