Because the lengthy, lengthy wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 goes on, the builders of MMO The Elder Scrolls Online have seen gamers take to their recreation to scratch their Elder Scrolls itch. In truth, they even noticed a participant bump following the discharge of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered.
Remarkably, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim got here out practically 14 years in the past, in November 2011. Its sequel, Skyrim, was formally introduced with a teaser trailer at E3 2018 an eye-watering eight years in the past. Sure, Skyrim has launched on a number of platforms within the years in-between (so many actually that it’s grow to be a Bethesda meme), however there’s a tangible clamouring for a contemporary Elder Scrolls expertise.
Enter, The Elder Scrolls Online.
ESO launched in 2014 and struggled at first, however 11 years later it’s nonetheless right here and continues to obtain updates. The improvement group at ZeniMax Online Studios have survived a number of rounds of Microsoft layoffs, recreation shutdowns and studio closures, and not too long ago reshuffled the sport’s management group to assist it survive one other 20 years. A major overhaul is deliberate.
In an interview with IGN at gamescom 2025, ESO recreation director Nick Giacomini and studio-wide director Wealthy Lambert mentioned they’ve seen loads of anecdotal proof that means Elder Scrolls followers are enjoying ESO as a single-player recreation to assist fill the void whereas they wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 to come out.
“We hear that lots,” Lambert mentioned. “It is actually attention-grabbing over time going to the varied reveals and group occasions, you hear that lots, proper? I can not inform you what number of instances I’ve answered the, ‘When’s TES 6 coming?’ ‘What’s TES 6?’ ‘Inform me!’ And it’s like… That’s a special studio, proper? However sure, persons are tremendous keen about Elder Scrolls. For lots of people, this has been their house as a result of they love Elder Scrolls they usually simply need to play extra of it, and we’re ready to present that.”
In accordance to Lambert, numerous ESO gamers play the MMO like a single-player recreation, which it’s effectively suited to after the developer tweaked how the sport labored following its troubled launch.
“Within the early days, at launch, we tried to stroll this type of tightrope the place it was MMO and Elder Scrolls, and we did not actually hit both one notably effectively,” Lambert defined.
“And once we determined we have been going to make it Elder Scrolls first after which MMO second, that helped clear up numerous the issues. And we began to see the gamers coming in and saying, ‘Oh, you imply I can solo all of these things? Oh, I haven’t got to play with different gamers. They only occur to be there.’ After which you’ve gotten these natural issues that occur.
“There’s lots of people that play the sport that means. After which there’s lots of people that simply do housing or simply PVP or simply play the cardboard recreation. We constructed on extra techniques to that over time, however at its core, numerous gamers do play it like a single-player recreation.”
Bethesda launched Oblivion Remastered earlier this yr and it proved to be massively well-liked. You’d suppose, then, that its launch would have negatively impacted ESO’s participant numbers. It did, for some time, Lambert revealed, however then participant numbers have been boosted after those that completed Oblivion Remastered have been left hungry for extra Elder Scrolls.
“The Oblivion Remaster was one other huge factor,” Lambert mentioned. “That got here out and we have been like, ‘Okay, that is going to hit our numbers for some time.’ And there was a small blip after which the numbers went up. Sort of just like the Fallout present. We have been like, ‘Wow, that is cool. Proper?’ So yeah, it is attention-grabbing.”
Nick Giacomini added: “we noticed numerous new and lapsed gamers come again in a short time after [Oblivion Remastered], and it continued truly for fairly a while. It was fairly thrilling.”
So, ESO continues to profit from the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6, however what’s the most recent on the massively anticipated recreation? The studio confirmed The Elder Scrolls 6 had entered “early improvement” in August 2023, and “early builds” have been out there in March 2024. The six yr anniversary of the announcement arrived in June final yr and even Bethesda improvement chief Todd Howard paused to say, “oh wow, that has been some time.”
In January this yr, The Elder Scrolls 6’s June 10, 2018 announcement grew to become as outdated as predecessor Skyrim was when The Elder Scrolls 6 was introduced.
The Elder Scrolls 6 was thought to be set for 2028 on the earliest, presumably on the next-generation of consoles in addition to PC. If it does launch then, it’ll accomplish that an unimaginable 17 years after Skyrim.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.