Microsoftis currently in court with the FTC over its planned acqusition of Activision Blizzard, asXboxhead Phil Spencer took to the stands to answer a variety of business related questions and queries. Naturally, the subject eventually turned to the exclusivity ofBethesda’stitles, as the FTC has been using Bethesda’s acquisition as a major part of its argument that Microsoft can’t be trusted to keep games onPlayStationconsoles.
One of the biggest titles that came with Bethesda’s acquisition was The Elder Scrolls 6, which Phil Spencer was questioned on regarding its potential exclusivity. When asked whether the title will be exclusive to Xbox consoles when it releases, Spencer explains that the title is so far out at the moment that plans aren’t even in place as to which platforms it will be available on, claiming that the game is still “five-plus years away.”
Related:Starfield Should Be More Skyrim, Less Fallout
“With Elder Scrolls 6, it’s so far out–it’s hard to understand what platforms it will even be at this point,” explains Spencer. “It’s the same team that’s finishing Starfield, which comes out this September. So we’re talking about a game that’s like five-plus years away.”
That means that The Elder Scrolls 6 won’t launch until at least 2028, and I get the feeling that that word “plus” is doing a lot of heavy lifting and that Spencer is being pretty generous with that estimate. Given that the team that’s currently working on Starfield will also develop The Elder Scrolls 6, it seems pretty likely that development hasn’t begun in any meaningful way just yet, which makes you wonder why Bethesda announced the game back in 2018 in the first place.
On top of that, Spencer later clarified that he didn’t even know what Xbox consoles the title will be launching on either, suggesting that we’re probably going to have to wait until the next generation of consoles for the next mainline Elder Scrolls title. Microsoft claimed yesterday that it expects Sony to release a PlayStation 6 at some point around 2028, which suggests it’ll have its own new Xbox console launch at the same time to compete.
Wording around The Elder Scrolls 6 is still very vague, so fingers crossed Microsoft won’t make it an Xbox exclusive when we get closer to release. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll be waiting a rather long time to find out.
Next:A Whole New Generation Is About To Discover Arkham Knight’s Batmobile
