Starfield fans are convinced they've discovered a neat Elder Scrolls 6 joke in-game

The Elder Scrolls 6
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Starfield has quite a funny joke about The Elder Scrolls 6.

As spotted by the Reddit user below over the past weekend, there's a rather peculiar scroll holder in The Lodge, which is the headquarters of The Constellation troupe in Starfield. There's nothing much going on with this scroll holder, but it's being propped by a book called "Great Expectations," which can't be an accident.

Have to imagine this is an Elder Scrolls 6 reference from r/Starfield

We can't imagine Charles Dickens has much of a presence in Starfield's universe. Instead, this is surely a joke about The Elder Scrolls 6 being propped up the 'great expectations' of a hell of a lot of people around the world, as the Reddit user hypothesizes in the original post above.

This is either just about the greatest coincidence ever, or it's a really funny joke from the folk at Bethesda. We can't help but wonder who put these props here in The Lodge - is it someone that'll be heading off to work on The Elder Scrolls 6 after their time on the new spacefaring RPG is done?

If it is, we can't help but feel for them. Starfield was under a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver, not just because it's Bethesda's first new game world in well over two decades, but also because it had something to prove for Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service, and after eight long years in development, no less.

It's already been five years since The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced, and the pressure on Bethesda is only going to ramp up the more we learn about the game. Bethesda's head of publishing recently revealed The Elder Scrolls 6 is finally in development, now that Starfield has effectively shipped. The joke is funny, but there's no lies detected here. 

You can head over to our Starfield religions guide if you're a bit stuck on deciding which faction to align yourself with in the early hours. 

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.