The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced at E3 2018, and since then there's barely been a single detail confirmed by Bethesda beyond the game's existence itself. Even the next Elder Scrolls' full title and setting have remained mysterious, although a detail in Starfield's E3 trailer resembling a map of High Rock and Hammerfell has led to many fans considering those provinces frontrunners. The silence from Bethesda, however, has been so deafening that many fans of the studio have long-suspected that the game's 2018 announcement was intended to diffuse any potential negative coverage of controversial multiplayer Fallout 76, unveiled at the same convention.

Starfield is Bethesda Game Studios' next big RPG release, and fans only just received key details about the game at E3 2021, under two years before its release date. The lack of news about The Elder Scrolls and Bethesda's focus on Starfield makes it seem likely that The Elder Scrolls 6 is still in the early phases of development and will not be released until the mid-2020s. With everything up in the air, if fans want to make their voices heard when it comes to the next Elder Scrolls' direction, now is the time.

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Bethesda has been going through something of an experimental phase since the release of Skyrim. Although Fallout 4's release continued Bethesda's reliance on its two major IPs, it also introduced some features few fans expected. These included the settlement-building system, the voiced protagonist, and the third-person, wheel-based dialogue system found in games like Mass Effect.

Since Fallout 4's first forays into tweaking the studio's RPG formula, Bethesda Game Studios has released its first major multiplayer game in Fallout 76 and is now shifting its focus to its first new IP in over 25 years in Starfield. The Elder Scrolls 6 will very likely integrate or rework some of the more experimental features found in Bethesda's games since Skyrim. With Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and seemingly Starfield all using settlement-building mechanics, for example, The Elder Scrolls 6 seems likely to follow suit, especially after Skyrim's Hearthfire DLC laying part of the foundation for Fallout 4's system.

There have also been rumors about some experimental new features coming The Elder Scrolls 6's way. Back in March video game leaker Tiffany Treadmore claimed that The Elder Scrolls 6's retail release would include survival mechanics. In the same series of tweets, she also mentioned that the game could potentially include a rune-drawing mechanic which would seemingly tie into a revised spell-system, including the return of custom spells from Oblivion and Morrowind.

Skyrim may be a classic, but since its release there have not been many first-person RPGs able to emulate its immense success, leaving Bethesda with few points of comparison for the development of the genre over the last decade. Aside from Obsidian's The Outer Worlds, which despite its original setting did not add many features to Bethesda's standard RPG formula, Bethesda's last real point of comparison for The Elder Scrolls 6 are Fallout 4 and Skyrim itself.

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Skyrim was so influential on the western RPGs of the last decade, however, that replicating its formula without making significant changes will make The Elder Scrolls 6 feel instantly dated. Living up to Skyrim's legacy is one of Bethesda's biggest challenges, even with its non-Elder Scrolls releases. The studio will likely be carefully considering what made Skyrim successful, and some of the features introduced in other games and Skyrim mods that could bolster the base game of The Elder Scrolls 6.

If the introduction of survival mechanics into The Elder Scrolls 6's base game is true, it's likely that one of Bethesda's biggest influences will be its own game's modding communities. Survival mods like Skyrim's Frostfall were huge successes, adding to the base game without undermining the player's immersion in the world like some of Skyrim's sillier mods. While fans have the opportunity to voice their opinions about the next game's direction online, it seems likely that since Skyrim's release one of the most important deciders of future Elder Scrolls features will have been mod downloads.

One of Bethesda fans' other best chances to influence the development of The Elder Scrolls 6 likely lies in the reception of Starfield. Although some fans were disappointed to learn that Bethesda's next RPG would be an Xbox exclusive, Starfield could be good news for The Elder Scrolls fans. As a new IP Bethesda may be more likely to try out experimental new features in Starfield than it would be in The Elder Scrolls 6. The features which are well-received - and those which are not - will almost certainly have a big influence on the development of The Elder Scrolls 6, especially with several years predicted between Starfield's 2022 release date and the next Elder Scrolls, rumored to be set for release around 2026.

Bethesda is likely keeping a keen eye on the reception of certain Elder Scrolls rumors, as well as contributing to them. Back at Brighton Digital 2020, for example, Todd Howard raised the possibility that The Elder Scrolls 6 would make greater use of procedural generation to create a larger in-game world with significantly larger cities than previous expansions.

While little has been confirmed about The Elder Scrolls 6, Todd Howard recently confirmed that the game is still "in the design phase," likely indicating that it's still very early in its development process. The Bethesda modding community and the reception of other first-person RPGs from The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed to Bethesda's own Starfield can still have a huge influence on the next game, but only while The Elder Scrolls 6 is still early enough in its development for major decisions to be made about its direction. It's will likely be some time before The Elder Scrolls 6 releases, but fans of the franchise need to make sure their voices are heard before the window passes.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.

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