Phil Spencer said Elder Scrolls 6 is five years out, but Microsoft says otherwise

It’s becoming increasingly unclear how early The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to release, as Microsoft itself has suggested it could be out as soon as 2026.

Back in 2018, when The Elder Scrolls 6 was first announced, none of us could imagine that five years later we haven’t seen a single second of gameplay. But here we are, still waiting on seeing more, and we don’t even have a release window, nor what platforms it will even launch on. Xbox head Phil Spencer has previously implied it won’t be coming to PS5, and earlier this year he said the game was at least five years away as part of the Federal Trade Commission’s trial against Microsoft over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Now, though, again as part of the case, Microsoft appears to be claiming it could be out as early as 2026, and that it will only be available on Xbox and PC.

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According to a table that shows various Bethesda games and its approach following acquisitions since 2018, The Elder Scrolls 6’s release date is still to be confirmed, “but expected [by] 2026 or later.” The table shows other games like Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, which were originally limited to the PS5 on console but later received Xbox releases, and Fallout 76, which launched on all major platforms bar the Switch.

To be clear though, it’s super unlikely that the game will be released in 2026, as development has only properly gotten started last month. On the topic of Xbox exclusivity though, it still really isn’t that clear. Even recently Spencer won’t commit to the game being exclusive or multi-platform, despite Starfield being Xbox only and finding a lot of success. Now that Starfield is out, though, we’re much more likely to get word on The Elder Scrolls 6, so it probably won’t be all that long until we get something concrete. Probably.