The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced years ago, and franchise fans don't even know the game's full title yet. Not only is Bethesda keeping details about the game under wraps, but there's evidence to suggest that after all this time, there may not be all that much to keep hidden. If Bethesda is going to keep the reputation of its two major franchises in-tact, Fallout 5 cannot make the same mistake.

Announcing the development of Fallout 5 early could be tempting at a theoretically tumultuous time for the studio. Another early announcement could do more harm than good to Bethesda in the long-run.

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December 2020 was a glaring warning sign to RPG game development — hype may help boost a game's pre-sales, but it risks devastating that game's reception among fans and critics alike, if the final product is unable to live up to years of mounting expectations. Cyberpunk 2077, and the seven-year hype train that began with its 2013 reveal trailer, helped make it one of the most infamous releases of the last decade, and it's clear that some major development studios took note.

Not one to miss an opportunity to poke fun, Bethesda's rival in the first-person RPG market, Obsidian, released a reveal trailer for The Outer Worlds 2 that parodied early RPG announcements at E3 this year. "Will this creature be in the game?" said a dramatic voice over as the trailer panned up to a meticulously rendered alien monster. "No. Say goodbye to it forever [...] Now we see our hero, but only their silhouette because the developers haven't finished their design. Or finished the story. Or finished any gameplay that's actually ready to show."

Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 were both announced at E3 2018, but after three years of radio silence, fans have only received one more Starfield trailer and a behind-the-scenes look at the new IP's development. Last month Todd Howard spoke briefly about The Elder Scrolls 6 in an interview with The Telegraph. Over three years after the next Elder Scrolls game's announcement, Bethesda's director revealed that it was still "in the design phase." It's a broad comment that could mean anything from pre-production to finishing touches, but the choice of words was likely meant to temper expectations and to indicate that fans won't be getting an update for another few years.

The early announcement of The Elder Scrolls 6 has been met with some speculation. Many believe that the game was revealed at E3 2018 to deflect attention from the announcement of Fallout 76 and any potential criticism the RPG series' transition to multiplayer could attract. Whatever the reason, it seems clear in retrospect that The Elder Scrolls 6 can't have been more than conceptually in development three years ago, and in 2021, it's unclear how much major progress has been made. With Bethesda Game Studios focusing its efforts on Starfield, it seems unlikely that The Elder Scrolls 6's development will really gain traction until after the new sci-fi game's November 2022 release date.

On the one hand, the lack of updates since The Elder Scrolls 6's announcement is likely a good move, second only to not announcing it so early at all. If Bethesda had spent the last three years hinting at features to build hype around The Elder Scrolls 6, it would likely be setting itself up for a Cyberpunk-sized response. Nonetheless, the lack of news about the game since its reveal has certainly made some fans concerned about the future of the beloved fantasy series.

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There is a chance that Starfield will not be the success Bethesda is hoping for, particularly as a brand-new IP and as Bethesda's first Xbox exclusive. When another RPG giant, BioWare, was faced with the mixed reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda and poor reception of Anthem, it turned back to its two major franchises. Marketing was focused on a new Dragon Age and Mass Effect game, that promised to bring back fan-favorite characters from the original trilogy. If Starfield has a rocky launch, it's possible Bethesda will make a similar move and announce a new singleplayer Fallout game at a time when, like The Elder Scrolls 6, the game isn't much more than a title.

Even in the worst case scenario, Bethesda needs to avoid early announcement. The reception of Fallout 76 may have hurt the studio's reputation, but the extremely early announcement of The Elder Scrolls 6 has fueled impatience among some fans. That impatience was only exacerbated by the lack of news at E3 2021, and the announcement of Starfield's exclusivity. The latter even led to an embarrassing situation where Bethesda's marketing boss Peter Hines apologized to PS5 owners.

Bethesda is going through a period of significant change. Like all major studios, it has a new console generation to contend with. The acquisition of Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media by Microsoft presents new opportunities, but as the exclusivity controversy shows, new risks. With no future Fallout games in sight, the iconic dystopian franchise has the potential to be an ace up Bethesda's sleeve in case of emergency.

Although Starfield's exclusivity has disappointed some fans, there is one part of the new game's marketing that Bethesda got right. The studio held off on revealing any major details about the game until just over a year before its release, giving its development timeline a decently wide berth without making fans face yet another multi-year wait. The future of the Fallout franchise remains unclear, but if Bethesda is going to keep its reputation in-tact at a turbulent time, it should stay that way until the studio has something to show.

Fallout 5 is not confirmed to be in development.

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