An early version of 'The Elder Scrolls 6' is already being played

To celebrate 30 years of Elder Scrolls, Bethesda put out a statement recounting its long history. It also revealed that The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development and early builds are being played.

• READ MORE: How Inon Zur made the year’s best video game score
  

Posted to Twitter, the statement reads: “Even now, returning to Tamriel and playing early builds has us filled with the same joy, excitement, and promise of adventure.” The Elder Scrolls 6 has been in some stage of development for years, though work began more earnestly back in August 2023.

Unfortunately, Bethesda still hasn’t shown anything of The Elder Scrolls 6 beyond a teaser from E3 2018. And even though the developers are playing early builds of the game, it’s likely still a few years away, as the company is still supporting Starfield, and even updating Skyrim occasionally.

Also mentioned in the announcement was Bethesda’s desire to bring The Elder Scrolls series to as many people as possible. The first two games, Arena and Daggerfall are both available from ElderScrolls.com, while Morrowind and Oblivion are both backwards compatible on Xbox. It also joked “Skyrim is on…everything”, referencing the fact the game has been ported to so many platforms over the years.

Todd Howard, director and executive producer at Bethesda, said last year that he wishes he’d revealed The Elder Scrolls 6 “more casually” than he did. From the teaser in 2018 to only being in pre-production in 2022, and only late last year being announced as properly in development, fans have had to wait a long time for any real news about the game. So, knowing it is in a playable state at least will give them something to cling to for a few more years.

In other news, upcoming sci-fi action adventure game Stellar Blade has a demo coming to PS5 later this week, and progress made in the demo will carry over to the full game.