The Elder Scrolls turns 30 today, and 12 of those years belong to Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls has been a pretty big part of my gaming life for many years, and now the series has officially turned thirty years old. It’s not only the biggest IP Bethesda has ever put out, but it’s considered by many to be one of the best role-playing franchises of all time.

What will Todd Howard and the rest of the team be doing to celebrate this milestone? It’s hard to say at this stage. Nothing’s been said on social media at the time of writing, but with parts of the world still waking up, the Elder Scrolls developer will no doubt be marking this pretty significant occasion.

Three decades is a long time for any series to maintain, but even more difficult in terms of remaining popular and lucrative. Of course, of those 30 years, more than Skyrim accounts for more than 12 of them.

To get a little nostalgic here: I have fond memories of playing Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall after seeing my friend play it on his PC and deciding I wanted a piece of that action. While the series began with Arena on March 25, 1994, it was the follow-up two years later that put Bethesda on the RPG map.

Daggerfall was massive, encompassing an area roughly the size of Great Britain. That may pale in comparison to today’s standards, but such a scale was almost unthinkable back then. Remember that PC gaming was still in its infancy (Doom had only come out the year before Arena).

Then Morrowind came along in 2002 and just absolutely blew everything else out of the water. Oh man, that game was a joy to walk around in, with its advanced graphics and near-perfect role-playing elements. Yeah, it’s aged terribly over the years, but many still consider it the best Elder Scrolls game of all time.

Fast-forward to now and we’re still wondering where the next installment is. If you’re like me, you were probably banking on Bethesda saying a few words about TES6 not long after Starfield was released. The latter has only been out a few months, but I feel we’re not far from some sort of update about the former. The legacy must continue!