The Starfield Trend means good news for The Elder Scrolls 6

Starfield is one of the first Bethesda games to receive a major expansion long after release, and if that becomes the norm, it could mean The Elder Scrolls 6 receives support that previous rounds did not. If you look at Bethesda's track record, most of the significant content updates for its main games came in the first 12 months after launch. Starfield recently broke that pattern, and The Elder Scrolls 6 could do the same.

The first one Starfield expansion, Shattered Space, was released on September 30, 2024, about a year after the game's initial launch. If Starfield had followed the same pattern as Bethesda's other mainline games, such as Fallout 4 or The Elder Scrolls 4: OblivionShattered Space would likely have been its final expansion. But almost two years later, Bethesda released the Terran Armada DLC.

The Elder Scrolls 6 could be a true 10 year content game

In a previous interview with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, Bethesda's Todd Howard said the studio tries to think in terms of a “10-year horizon” for its upcoming games. It could indicate that future Bethesda titles will no longer primarily rely on fan-made content and mods to extend gameplay. Instead, they will aim to keep players engaged through official expansions. StarfieldThe Terran Armada update was released on April 7, 2026, almost three years after the game launched. And it could be an early sign that the studio's philosophy is already changing.

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Bethesda Games Expansion Release Cadence

Game	Expansion title
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind	Tribunal (2002), Bloodmoon (2003)
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion	Knights of the Nine (2006), Shivering Isles (2007)
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim	Dawnguard (2012), Hearthfire (2012), Dragonborn (2012)
Fallout 4	Far Harbor (2016)
Doom Eternal	The Ancient Gods: Part One (2020), The Ancient Gods: Part Two (2021)
Starfield	Shattered Space (2024), Terran Armada (2026)

During the same interview with MrMattyPlays, Todd Howard acknowledged the missed opportunities of Bethesda's older games. He said the studio looks back and wishes it had support for games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 longer. Howard also said developer support for The Elder Scrolls 6 will go beyond just adding content, though he didn't go into detail about what that means. If these comments are any indication, the much anticipated The Elder Scrolls 6 could continue to receive major expansions long after release.

While Starfield receiving expansions long after release is good news, it's not enough to excite the entire Bethesda fanbase. Many players feel that the studio is still too slow when it comes to meaningful game-enhancing updates, and that it has largely ignored some of the Starfieldbiggest problem so far. They also claim that the two expansions, Shattered Space and Terran Armada, did not add much to the game in terms of content. In their view, the same pattern follows The Elder Scrolls 6s long-awaited release wouldn't necessarily help sustain the player base.

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Another perspective is that it may still be too early to tell if Bethesda's approach to post-launch support has really changed. After all, Starfield isn't that old, and while it's broken the studio's usual DLC release pattern, it's still only received two expansions so far. Still shifted in Starfields support cadence, however small, should be seen as a step in the right direction. Hopefully, The Elder Scrolls 6 will receive an even more active post-launch update schedule, becoming the first single-player Bethesda game to continue receiving large-scale expansions years after launch.