Elder Scrolls 6: Bethesda Names It Top Priority Days After Xbox Gutted Its Own Team
Bethesda Game Studios says The Elder Scrolls VI is now its “primary development focus,” with “the majority” of its staff working on the long-awaited Skyrim sequel. The confirmation, published in a studio update note from director Todd Howard on Friday, arrives less than two weeks after Xbox’s parent company Microsoft cut more than 50 developers who had been working directly on the game.
Following sweeping layoffs at parent company Xbox earlier this month, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard revealed details about the developer’s future strategy Friday, confirming “Fallout 5” is in the works and “The Elder Scrolls 6” is the studio’s top priority, writing that the teams “are now developing The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 on Creation Engine 3, a shared technology platform” built since Starfield’s launch, according to Variety. The note added specifics on where each project stands, stating flatly that “Fallout 5 is currently in preproduction,” while “The Elder Scrolls VI is our primary development focus today, with the majority of our team currently working on the next chapter of the franchise.”
Bethesda’s Friday Note Breaks an Eight-Year Silence on Progress
Kotaku confirmed the memo landed the same week, reporting that “a note from Bethesda Game Studios, published by Todd Howard on Friday, did not mention the recent mass layoffs across Xbox directly, but it did lay out what comes next for the team” across its biggest franchises. The outlet noted that “almost a decade later, there’s still no release date or even a trailer” for the RPG, even as Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty told Variety last month that he had personally seen the game running and called it “amazing.”
Beyond Elder Scrolls VI, the note confirmed Starfield’s roadmap will continue into a third year of updates, and that Skyrim itself has now sold over 65 million copies since its 2011 release — context Bethesda used to underline just how long fans have waited for a true successor.
More Than 50 Elder Scrolls 6 Developers Lost in the Same Reset
The reassurance follows a brutal fortnight for Bethesda’s staff. Tech Times reported that “at Bethesda Game Studios, more than 50 developers working on The Elder Scrolls 6 were among those eliminated — people IGN described as ‘key, high-performing people in the trenches'” during the July 6 round of cuts. Former Bethesda project lead Jeff Gardiner separately confirmed 35 U.S.-based Bethesda Game Studios workers were cut on July 6, while additional losses were logged at the studio’s Montreal and Austin offices.
The cuts sit inside a much larger restructuring at Xbox. According to Variety, Xbox is set to reduce its workforce by up to 3,200 employees — or 20% of total staff — over the next year in what new CEO Asha Sharma calls the “most significant restructure” in the company’s history, with at least 1,600 staffers already laid off and 350 eliminated through divested studios since the plan was announced on July 6.
Bloomberg’s Schreier Still Puts a 2028-2029 Window on Launch
Even before the layoffs were confirmed, veteran Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier had already tempered expectations. Vice reported that during a July 7 Bloomberg Live Q&A, the industry veteran was asked about Bethesda’s current progress with TES6, and Schreier revealed that The Elder Scrolls 6 is still “2 to 3 years away at least” from being completed and launched, meaning it likely won’t release until 2028 or 2029 at the very earliest.
Tech Times argued the staffing losses only compound that timeline, noting that Schreier’s estimate means “The Elder Scrolls 6 remains at least two years from release as of July 2026 — meaning any slippage caused by the loss of senior developers doesn’t move the release window from 2027 to 2028. It pushes an already historically long wait further into the decade.”
ZeniMax Online Studios Now Folded Closer Into the Elder Scrolls Team
One structural change buried in Howard’s note involves The Elder Scrolls Online’s developer. ZeniMax Online Studios will partner closely with Bethesda Game Studios on The Elder Scrolls franchise, while continuing to deliver new experiences for The Elder Scrolls Online, with Season One: Return of the Thieves Guild having recently launched and more planned. By aligning more directly across the franchise, Bethesda says it can create better experiences for players.
That realignment comes as ZeniMax itself absorbed some of the heaviest cuts in the July reset, alongside Obsidian Entertainment, which is now assigned to build a new Fallout title under the shared Creation Engine 3 pipeline, per Variety’s reporting on Bethesda’s note.
What This Means for a Franchise Eight Years Removed From Its Teaser
For a global fanbase that has waited since the game’s brief 2018 announcement trailer, Friday’s note is the clearest official signal yet that Bethesda genuinely regards Elder Scrolls VI as unfinished business rather than a side project squeezed between Fallout entries. But the same week’s layoffs mean the studio is trying to accelerate its most consequential release with fewer of the people who built it, a tension that will likely shape how quickly — and how smoothly — the next real update arrives.
For Australian and New Zealand players who grew up with Skyrim on Xbox 360 and PS3, the timeline now on the table means a wait stretching toward the game’s 20th anniversary since Bethesda’s original teaser, with no confirmed platforms, price or Game Pass details locked in for the region yet. Until Bethesda breaks its own pattern and shows something beyond a logo, the safest assumption remains the one Schreier laid out: 2028 at the earliest, and possibly later still.
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