Follow

Link copied to clipboard

Published Jul 8, 2026, 11:40 AM EDT

Amid much turmoil at Xbox, TES6 fans get an update on the hyped RPG

Elder Scrolls 6 is at least two years away, says report

Sign in to your Polygon.com account

Xbox is in trouble, and the gaming publisher reportedly hopes to dig itself out of this hole by "doubling down" on its biggest franchises. For Bethesda, Microsoft's shift in priorities puts increased pressure to deliver The Elder Scrolls 6 — a game announced eight years ago. But what does going all hands on deck mean for the open-world RPG's development time?

According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who has led the charge in much of the reporting surrounding the recent massive Xbox layoffs, Elder Scrolls fans will still have to wait a bit. In a live Bloomberg Q&A, Schreier and reporter Edward Ludlow discussed the particulars of Microsoft's newest gaming reorganization. During this discussion, Schreier said that TES6 was "at least two or more years away" from finishing development.

If Bethesda manages to put a bow on the sequel quickly, then that means The Elder Scrolls 6 will have taken around a decade to develop. For a game of its stature — and given the known dysfunction at the heart of the Xbox division's management — that timeline makes sense. For the sake of comparison, early work on Grand Theft Auto 6 began around 2014; production ramped up around 2019. Japanese role-playing game Final Fantasy XV reportedly took around a decade to complete.

That prolonged development time (and the many millions required to sustain it) explains why fewer publishers are attempting ambitious projects in recent console generations. With games like TES6, the stakes are high in a way where strong sales aren't necessarily enough to recoup costs.

But first, Bethesda has to finish the game. Given the prestige and widespread anticipation of its next game, Bethesda is an Xbox studio that may be primed for success. The same cannot be said of all of Microsoft's gaming acquisitions. Undead Labs, the studio behind zombie co-op franchise State of Decay, spent nearly a decade under Microsoft's stewardship without ever shipping a game. Bethesda did undergo layoffs this July, but the cuts primarily affected the studio branches working on The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76.

There's reason to have hope for TES6, though. Bethesda and Xbox repeatedly discuss the game in public. Though we never get any juicy updates on the game, it seems like development is at least progressing. Last we heard, TES6 was Bethesda's main focus — and the game was far enough along to be play tested. The build isn't always stable, Bethesda admits, but CEO Todd Howard says he and the team are thinking deeply about the game's mechanics.

Unless Bethesda suddenly announces that TES6 will go early access, most of us already assume the game is a few years away. Still, it's nice to get confirmation — especially when so much at Xbox seems up in the air right now.