The wait for the Elder Scrolls 6 has been "too long," says Bethesda's Todd Howard, while confirming it's still ages away

There are some games that almost feel like they don't actually exist until they're in the wild. The new Fable, for example; Bloodlines 2 before its launch last month. Then there's Bethesda titans Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6, two of the most hotly anticipated games on the planet that remain, to this day, shrouded in mystery. In a new interview with GQ, Bethesda's Todd Howard doesn't randomly drop the Elder Scrolls 6 release date (thanks, Todd, I didn't need that on a Monday), but does acknowledge that the wait for the game has been "too long."

While Bethesda published the absolutely stellar Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, its last game was, of course, Starfield. 'Fallout in space' certainly had allure to it, but the reality was just that, no bells or whistles, nothing less, nothing more. In many ways, it was the most Bethesda RPG, but does that make it a good videogame? Nat's 7/10 Starfield review confirms it was… decent.

Bethesda has enjoyed some wins since, however: the aforementioned Indy game, and then the remaster of Oblivion. While some fans cry 'where's Morrowind,' others are hoping they'll see ES6 in their lifetime. Well, sorry, I have bad news - The Elder Scrolls 6 is "still a long way off."

Speaking to GQ, Howard states that, while The Elder Scrolls 6 is "an everyday thing" at Bethesda HQ, we'll have to wait to see it in the flesh. He notes that the team "does like to have a break [between Elder Scrolls games], where it isn't like a 'plus one' sequel," continuing " I think it's also good for an audience to have a break - The Elder Scrolls has been too long, let's be clear."

However, the focus was on doing "something new with Starfield," with Howard concluding that "we needed a creative reset."

It does appear that a playable version of the game exists, however, as later in GQ's article, when asked if he learns anything new when making videogames, he responds: "We did a big play test yesterday for The Elder Scrolls 6, and you have to really look at the screen and say, 'What is this? What does this need? Where are we at?' Great games are played, not made. The screen doesn't lie."

This could be short quest snippets or a very early, playable, but incomplete version. We don't know. Either way, it's just good to know Bethesda's working on it and that the game we've been waiting 14 years for (seven if I'm charitable) does, in fact, exist in some form.