The Elder Scrolls 6 puts everything on the line for Bethesda, and it could affect the developer's prominence as an RPG developer

When The Elder Scrolls 6 actually manages to release, it will have to manage the weight of industry-wide expectations for its quality. Fallout 76 has only recently come into its own, and Starfieldfor all its ambition, exposed the cracks in Bethesda's design. What worked 14 years ago with Skyrim It's just not enough anymore, and for a studio that once defined the open world RPG, The Elder Scrolls 6 will likely represent one of the more consequential creative decisions in Bethesda's history.

Starfield was meant to showcase Bethesda's ability to innovate beyond its established franchises, but for all its better angels, ended up a cautionary tale of scale versus substance. The game's planets felt empty, and it ran into a veritable brick wall of technical issues at launch (to say nothing of the loading screens). More damning than these technical issues, however, was the realization that Bethesda's core design loop, which wore Oblivion, Fallout 3and Skyrim to critical and cultural acclaim, is undeniably dated.

How the RPG landscape has evolved

Consider what defines a successful AAA RPG in 2026. Baldur's Gate 3for one, set the standard for player choice in big budget RPGs and proved that audiences reward developers who treat them as capable enough to navigate complex moral terrain. Meaningful agency now exists beyond binary good/evil karma or obvious decision points, and based on the disclosure of Divinityit can get around much faster too.

A year earlier, Fire Ring suggested that exploration works best when it is involved and rewarding in ways that transcend loot tables, but was, more importantly, independent. It didn't hold hands or guide anyone to death, and there's no journal full of brilliant quests to ignore, no quests at all, really. Allowing players to go their own way was ironically reminiscent of Morrowind era of RPGs, when Bethesda excelled at the same thing.

Games like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 also proved that complex narratives can coexist with a player's freedom of choice. CD Projekt RED's approach also resulted in densely populated cities, morally complex characters, and side quests that rival the main story of both games. None of these elements came at the expense of another, and all are pain points that have consistently felt thin in Bethesda's recent games.

The flaws in Bethesda's formula

Explore a procedurally generated planet - Starfield

Bethesda's traditional strengths, while industrially formed, are increasingly struggling to make up for weaknesses these contemporaries have addressed. The studio's dialogue systems remain clunky compared to what Larian has offered, and combat, whether we're debating Skyrims floating swordplay or Starfield's competent but uninspired gunplay, has never been Bethesda's forte. Nor can it pass nearly as comfortably for a time there Fire Ring exists. The writing, while sometimes best in class, has suffered when stretched across hundreds of hours of content.

Perhaps most critically, Bethesda's reliance on procedural generation may have worked when Dagger case pioneered repeatable content in 1996, but it feels exhausting in 2026. Starfields many empty planets is one thing, but the identical outposts and recycled dungeons stood in stark contrast to the clockwork precision design of Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 or the reactive environments of Baldur's Gate 3. The illusion of exploration is shattered in box-checking when surrounded by repetition like that, although the universally shared flora and fauna didn't help either.

The central mystery in all this industry chatter is what actually lies ahead The Elder Scrolls 6. Given that the last material update anyone has had since 2018 is longtime TES loremaster Kurt Kuhlmann leaving Bethesda, it's not unfair to say that things are looking uncertain at the moment. Still, two options for what plays out with The Elder Scrolls 6 appears immediately.

The safe (and disappointing) bet would be to deliver 'Skyrim but bigger,' double down on familiar systems while hoping that nostalgia and The Elder Scrolls brand carries the day. That's a recipe for a profitable game that would sell millions of copies, but it would firmly cement the RPG crown on Larian's or FromSoftware's head, without reclaiming creative leadership in the genre.

Procedure generation is a necessary change

The alternative is for Bethesda to fundamentally rethink what makes their games special and then act on that rethinking. Players can have any number of problems with Fallout 76 or Starfieldbut what works and doesn't can be hard to quantify without a controller in hand. The material improvements that this path absolutely requires extend at least to better combat systems, more sophisticated AI, and a willingness to trust players with real consequences for their actions rather than being endlessly and openly accommodating without pushback.

Bethesda obviously shouldn't abandon what makes its games distinctive; its commitment to strong fantasy worlds remains unmatched, as does its sandbox design. The feeling of stumbling into something weird and wonderful around any corner has value, and Bethesda's approach to mods allows the community to turn these games into living, evolving experiences. Those strengths just can't carry the franchise alone anymore, not when players have experienced what Baldur's Gate 3 or Fire Ring has accomplished with player agency and world design.

The stakes are sensational if not existential

The reality is that if The Elder Scrolls 6 is ever actually released, it will sell well regardless, but it will also determine whether Bethesda remains the powerhouse of the RPG genre it has been or becomes an older studio that rolls out while younger, hungrier developers define the future of the medium. Starfields reception proved to be a mulligan with critics and audiences understanding, perhaps even more than warranted, that new IPs face unique challenges. With a franchise that The Elder Scrollsthey probably won't get a second one.

It feels like a huge amount of pressure, but honestly, it should. After this long wait, if The Elder Scrolls 6 feels like more of the same, since the ten year conversation from then to the eventual release of Fallout 5 will shift. The question of “when will Bethesda innovate?” will become “they may not be able anymore.”