The Elder Scrolls VI was first announced back in 2018. We're nearly a decade on from that reveal, and we've not seen anything new from the game in that amount of time. It's likely going to be a decade before we even have a hint of a proper release, a fact that Todd Howard wishes we'd all forget.
Speaking with IGN, Howard was asked about the upcoming fantasy RPG. "Just pretend we didn't announce it," he said once it was mentioned. "Doesn't exist. No one's heard a word." Trying again, Howard was then asked if he would have preferred a different approach, and whether he's more conscious about when Bethesda should share news.
"I always start with, when you go and press play, you're about to play a game. What do you already know? What's in your head? What's your excitement level? What's your expectations? And I back up from there," Howard explained. "I prefer not to talk about stuff until then. I like to compress that moment where you hear about a game to when you can play it. Those would be on top of each other if I had my way every time. That isn't necessarily the best thing to do with every game. Sometimes you need to inform people and there's business considerations and et cetera, et cetera"
It seems from Howard's response that he prefers each of Bethesda's signature IPs to have their moments as well. "I feel like the Starfield audience has been, 'What about us?' And we had sort of balance with like, 'Hey, the end of the Fall was for Fallout, the TV show,' with everything we were doing. And we knew that we were just going to save the Starfield stuff to give its spotlight during this time. But yeah. It's a balance," he said.
In the same interview, Howard did end up hyping up The Elder Scrolls VI quite a bit, talking a lot about how the game's new engine will hopefully make the development process smoother, and give us greater visuals.