Todd Howard Wishes The Elder Scrolls VI Wasn't Taking So Long

Bethesda Game Studios' game director and executive producer Todd Howard in an interview discussed The Elder Scrolls VI and revealed he has a rough idea of when the upcoming WRPG will be coming out.

Howard wishes it wasn't taking so long for the game to develop and release and this was never his original plan. By the time The Elder Scrolls VI releases it will most likely be 15 years or more since the launch of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

[Orchard]

Him and the rest of the gaming community.

[Welshy]

Todd Howard probably shouldn't have announced it 20 years in advance if Todd Howard didn't want to wait so long for it to release.

[Lifexline]

For real I think that’s every developers wish that development didn’t take so long. But you can’t please everyone people will get mad if you announce a game too early and they will get mad if you do announce it to begin with.

People on the internet just like to hate on things for no reason knowing they could just simply ignore something they don’t like but it says much more about their own lives.

[HardKnockKid24]

What? Does this make sense? And who ‘liked’ this? Whether is was announced 400 years in advance or 4 hours in advance, the development time is the development time…. It’s still a wait for them… how does that change based on announcement? Even for the public, no one was under the illusion that ES6 was not coming at some point, the wait is the same…. Did you think this through?

[Welshy]

@HardKnockKid24
Yes it does make a difference and I did think it through. When you announce a game and then release it 6 months to a year later (like Bethesda used to), it gives an air of confidence in the product that they both waited to announce it, and that it'll be ready since they're not taking forever to get it out.

If you announce a game close to 10 years ahead of time and are still concerned that development is too slow even for that time frame, it comes across as development hell and things not going as well as they should be.

There's a world of difference in the tone of "damn, this taking way too long" and "it'll be ready once we're confident it's ready".

[HardKnockKid24]

If I work on something for 10 years that I announced ten years ago vs working on something for 10 years that I announced ONE year ago, my time spent working on that thing is the same. The fact that this basic time and space inescapable fact is being challenged tells me I am not speaking to someone willing to be objective. Im sorry, tapping out.

[Bobertt]

I wish they would use a new engine. The best current gen engines i have seen are probably what they use for God of War and Horizon. But even they start to look last gen when you see the stuff people are building with Unreal Engine 5. Bethesda's creation engine can't even compare and ES6 will likely come out around the same time UE5 games are coming out.

[Profchaos]

I thought they were?

[arkard]

Just spruced up creation engine.

[Zhipp]

They're calling it a new engine, but like every other "new" engine these days it's really an upgraded version of the one they've been using for years.

[Brazz]

this is kinda tricky....
You see, Bethesda engine is crafted for these gigantic RPG whit thousands of options/tools related to dialogues, exploration, etc...
Now, UE5 is amazing, and it's better than Bethesda engine, but to "recreate" all options/tools that are needed to make a game like ESVI... hard task... also you will give a good share of your Sales to Epic Games... lot's of money and work on the table here, doesn't make much sense go UE5

[lucian229]

I mean, 10-15 years is more than enough time. No excuses. This is why all their games including starfield look absolutely horrible.

[Bobertt]

They could of crafted a new engine by now even Call of duty eventually did. But I believe Witcher 4 is being made on UE5 so they shouldn't have any issue with making an RPG with a lot of dialogue in it if they chose to use it.

[dumahim]

There's been other developers who've managed to use UE for their open world games, and most aren't as big as Bethesda. If they can pull it off, Bethesda can too. I'm not saying they should use UE, but it'd probably be easier than completely making something new or overhauling their current engine to be more modern.

[DOMination-]

They don't look absolutely horrible though?

From what little has been shown, Starfield looks pretty good for its size. Maybe you only watched it on the livestream with when the quality is less than ideal?

ES 3, 4 and 5 all looked incredible for their time, better than most linear games at time of release. If you've watched the videos of how they are capturing tress and landscapes then you'll know ES6 will keep up this tradition

Also, engine =/= graphics. Like at all.

[MadLad]

Just looking at Starfield, there is a major upgrade from Fallout 4.
It's the same engine, but it's constantly being updated.

Keep in mind, the same engine running Starfield is the same engine that ran Morrowind 20 years ago. They're the same engine in name alone.

[Zhipp]

Bethesda's engine does things that other engines are not designed for. The sandboxes they create alongside their particular support for mods isn't something that UE5 is able to bring to the table just yet, and may never. From a graphics point of view yes those engines you mentioned are the best (alongside DICE's), but engines are about more than just rendering technologies.

[The3faces]

The updated Creation 2 engine shouldn't have a problem. Starfield is gonna be quite impressive utilizing it!

[jznrpg]

Cutscenes will look good but it’s gameplay where it will look like Bethesda of old . They need a new engine altogether not patching up ancient tech

[Zhipp]

No one makes entirely new engines. Everything is an iteration of ancient tech. Even the new Horizon is running on the same engine as Killzone 2.

[IRetrouk]

No its not, the decima engine was built from the ground up for shadowfall, killzone 2 etc used an older engine that a lot of sonys studios were using at the time.

[lellkay]

@Zhipp do you just make things up as you go along. Pretty much everyone knows Decima was not an interation and was built purely from the ground up for Killzone Shadowfall.

Killzone 2 was running off a completely different propriety engine combined with Havok physics.

[lellkay]

@The3faces Nothing they have showed yet instills any faith whatsoever that this will be the case

[Muigi]

Games just take an insane amount of time and money to make nowadays and its only going to get worse tbh.

[Welshy]

I think that's a separate issue from this though. They announced the next TES waaaaaaaay too soon, regardless of dev cycles being longer these days.

[jznrpg]

10-15 years should be enough time , for 3-4 games .

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Skyrim came out on the 360, and we're not anywhere close to TES VI releasing. That's bad.

[crazyCoconuts]

Yet we see Far Cry and Assasins Creeds games coming out on a regular basis. It's not like the whole game industry has suddenly stopped making games

[curtain_swoosh]

well, dont announce it 10 years before it comes out then

[YodaCracker]

Err… what does when it was announced have to do with the development time? Would Todd be fine with it taking this long if it hadn’t been announced? Would it take less time to develop if it wasn’t announced?

[SimpleSlave]

"Gosh darn it! I wish I could make my property work 24/7!!! 20/6 just won't do!!!!"

[isarai]

Dude take your time, dont launch another disaster

[anast]

Dude is lying. They could have changed the engine and started working on ES6 in the last 15 years, but they didn't. Instead they leached off of the modding community and served up scraps for more than a decade.

[TheColbertinator]

In the time waiting for it, I got that mod for Crusader Kings 3 with adds in Elder Scrolls lore and maps. Good way to scratch the Elder Scrolls itch while we wait ten years for the new Elder Scroll.

[GamingSinceForever]

Well he can easily pull a CD Projekt move and release a hyped heap of shit or he can sit his ass down and wait until it’s ready.

What is most important is that they release the game they intended for us gamers.

[Destiny1080]

they should hire crystal dynamics like all other xbox studios

[Futureshark]

Just rush it out early with loads of bugs and then slowly patch them in over the next couple of years! Easy!

oh...that's the plan anyway. Ho hum!

[dumahim]

I wish their games came out and weren't progressive more buggy and broken than the last.

[Lamplighter123]

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[darkrider]

Don't understand. Your owners on court told that your game isn't that big. Its a medium size game....

[mastershredder]

LOL. DAMN Talent Creatives...I WANT MY MONEY! What a greed machine. All he can see is what is on the horizon. $$$ Chump.

[OhReginald]

I mean I was If it was bad it would ruin their reputation....but then I remembered fallout 76 lmfao

[MrDead]

Another multiplatform legacy title MS has banned from gamers, I hope this entire endeavour of anti-gamer multiplatform publisher banning any buying of the industry end's in disaster. The greed on show is disgusting, MS spending billions on games that were already coming to xbox just to remove them from competition.

Looks like Judge Jackson's verdict of MS is coming true in the games industry now "retarding inovation, denying consumer choice, degrading product quality and increasing consumer cost" . Can't wait for more buyouts and bans, truly for the gamers of course.

[Roiu89]

I really don't think it's acceptable to have the sequel 15 years later, tops 6 years, for a studio the size of Bethesda it's unacceptable, same goes for Rockstar and other studios

[ikarodemon]

They'll need to get a lot right at Starfield to regain our confidence in the quality that Bethesda represented in the past. Only after this I will have some expectation for the next Elder Scroll game.

[poppatron]

15 years!!!!!

That’s 2026!!!!

AT LEAST!!!!