Bethesda Game Studios has announced that The Elder Scrolls franchise is celebrating its 30th anniversary today, and with that comes a little bit of news regarding The Elder Scrolls VI, the next mainline installment of Bethesda’s action RPG series that, despite being announced five years ago—in June 2018—still lacks a proper title. The Elder Scrolls: Arena, the first Elder Scrolls game, was originally released for MS-DOS on March 25, 1994.
Release timeline (mainline entries):
- The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994)
- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1996)
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
- The Elder Scrolls VI (TBA)
Bethesda on The Elder Scroll’s 30th birthday:
It’s been 30 years since the beginning of this incredible journey through Tamriel with the launch of The Elder Scrolls: Arena. It’s amazing to think how much the series has grown, and how much it still means to everyone, and that is all thanks to you, our community of players.
Many hundreds of developers have spent time on The Elder Scrolls over those 30 years. As the series has grown, so have we. Still to this day, each chapter has aimed to let all of us live another life, in another world.
Arena started it all, with the entirety of Tamriel generated for you to explore freely. Daggerfall moved that into a smaller region with political intrigue and a detailed character system. Morrowind took it to new exotic lands and introduced the series to both consoles and the world of modding and creators. Oblivion brought us to the heart of the Empire, realms beyond, and all new gameplay mechanics. Skyrim let you do battle with dragons in Tamriel’s harsh northern province.
One of our goals has been to make sure everyone can still enjoy these games today, and we continue to work on new ways for you to experience them. Arena and Daggerfall can be downloaded and played for free from ElderScrolls.com. Xbox supports Morrowind and Oblivion with backwards compatibility and upgraded to 4k. And of course, Skyrim is on…everything.
This year also marks another anniversary – 10 years of The Elder Scrolls Online. Our amazing colleagues at ZeniMax Online Studios have nurtured a game and community that has become one of the biggest and best there is.
Bethesda on what’s next:
We have other exciting projects underway as well, including The Elder Scrolls: Castles on mobile. It’s a unique take on a castle builder where you control your own dynasty and is currently in soft-launch in several countries. We have also launched the latest version of Creations in Skyrim where you can more easily get all the incredible content our community continues to create.
Last but not least, yes, we are in development on the next chapter – The Elder Scrolls VI. Even now, returning to Tamriel and playing early builds has us filled with the same joy, excitement, and promises of adventure.
Thank you again for supporting us all these decades, and all you have brought to the games, making them your own. We couldn’t be more excited to continue it and celebrate the next 30 years.
The Elder Scrolls VI announcement trailer from 2018: