Despite having Fallout 76 launch in less than a month and a ton of other games in the pipeline, perhaps the biggest moment for publisher Bethesda in all of 2018 was when it revealed both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI at E3, the next two titles that Bethesda Game Studios will be creating in the coming years. It was a drastic departure for Bethesda who instead tends to sit on their game announcements until they are closer to actually releasing.
In a recent discussion with Gamespot at PAX Australia, Bethesda’s VP of Marketing Pete Hines spoke a bit more about both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI and explained why they decided to announce both games so far in advance. Hines acknowledged that while it would have likely been better to continue going down this route of announcing games only shortly before they’re ready, he said that the aim with these two reveals was to be transparent to their fans.
“Would it have been better if it was some years from now and we just go, ‘Surprise, we’re making a game called Starfield, and it’s out X months later?’ Yeah. For sure,” said Hines. “But at the same time, there is also value in every day between there people aren’t freaking out about us making Fallout 76 as an online-only game as a service and this is all they’re ever making.”
Hines continued by also talking about how even though Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI have been officially announced, that doesn’t mean they’re even close to being ready. “I try really hard to manage people’s expectations. It’s not like ‘Fallout 76 this year, Starfield next year, and then TES6 the year after.’ The timeline isn’t any different. What’s different is just trying to be transparent and say, ‘Don’t freak out, the next thing we’re doing is single-player [in Starfield], [and] we are making TES6.”
Even though Bethesda Game Studios now has four offices scattered around the world, with a new location recently announced to be in Dallas, Hines also made clear that just because the development team has more staff than ever before doesn’t mean development will go by that much more quickly. In fact, when talking about The Elder Scrolls VI specifically, Hines said that it likely won’t be out until the next console generation has arrived. “I don’t even know what the world is going to be like when it comes out; there will be a different console generation by then, I’m sure,” Hines stated.
As a final message to fans, Hines told them all to strap in and be patient over the next few years. “Take a deep breath; you’re going to be OK. We’re going to make some stuff you’re really going to love,” he said.
Even though there’s still plenty to learn about Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI, Bethesda has plenty of time to divulge that information. Hopefully, the coming months are years start to shed more light on each project and their potential arrival dates.
In the meantime, Fallout 76 is slated to arrive just next month on November 14 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Hopefully, it will be an enjoyable multiplayer experience that will help make the trip to Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI feel that much shorter.