Elder Scrolls 6 will be more like Skyrim than Starfield but won’t use Unreal Engine

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has provided another update on Elder Scrolls 6’s development, while adding that Starfield hasn’t been abandoned.

Although Bethesda is prioritising development of The Elder Scrolls 6, with it allegedly in a playable state as of last year, it’s unlikely to launch any time soon. Microsoft once said 2028 at the earliest, but that was three years ago and who knows if plans have changed since then.

Any time the subject has been brought up, game director Todd Howard has been keen to stress that things are going well but the game is still a long way off from launching.

Nevertheless, in a new interview, Howard has offered some new info; namely that The Elder Scrolls 6 is being built with an upgraded version of Bethesda’s in-house engine and that the aim is to stick to the series’ ‘classic’ formula.

Speaking with Kinda Funny, Howard explained that Bethesda is using Creation Engine 3, which, as the name suggests, is the third iteration of the engine that was first used for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

An upgraded version of the engine was used for Starfield and now it’s been improved again for The Elder Scrolls 6, with Creation Engine 3 to become the new standard for future games too (which no doubt includes Fallout 5).

It’s debatable whether that’s good news as Bethesda’s in-house tech has long been criticised for being outdated, for encouraging bugs, and being subject to poor facial animation. Starfield was an improvement in terms of the latter two issues, but it was far from perfect or cutting edge.