It's been five years since Elder Scrolls 6 was announced, and still the sequel is nowhere in sight

Five years have passed since Elder Scrolls 6 was first unveiled, and still the sequel is nowhere to be seen.

We got our first glimpse of Elder Scrolls 6 in a teaser all the way back in June 2018, which at just 30 seconds in length, featured only the game's title and a mountainous landscape. As Twitter user @CortanaV recently pointed out, this short clip is now officially celebrating its fifth birthday. "I set a reminder on my calendar," says CortanaV. "It was actually June 10 but I'm the only one keeping track."

It certainly seems as though Bethesda has lost track of time, as we've only had a smattering of updates on the Skyrim sequel since that announcement, none of which give us hope that we'll be playing it anytime soon. 

Last year, when asked about a potential release window, Bethesda's Todd Howard replied, "I wish it was soon". Then in January 2022, a LinkedIn profile suggested that the title was still in pre-production, and Howard confirmed as much in an interview a few months later. "Yes, Elder Scrolls 6 is in pre-production and, you know, we're going to be doing Fallout 5 after that, so our slate's pretty full going forward for a while," Howard said.

Due to Bethesda's current focus on Starfield and the company's four-to-five-year development period for games, it's likely that we won't see Elder Scrolls 6 until at least 2027, which by then would be 16 years after Skyrim's initial release.

As for Starfield, it's set to launch on September 6, and as part of the E3 2023 schedule, Microsoft is hosting a livestream dedicated solely to the ambitious space-faring RPG, which kicks off right after the Xbox Games Showcase this Sunday.

See what's coming to Microsoft's latest console in our guide to upcoming Xbox Series X games.