by theygamesThe Elder Scrolls 6 release date is absolutely a long way off at this point, with the still-unknown Starfield release date set way before the next Bethesda RPG game that dives into the world of Tamriel. While we all wait for the release date, it looks like the UK government may already know it, even if they have smartly redacted any mention of it from official documents.
Don’t get your hopes up too high, we’re not here to tell you for definite that the UK government has the day, month, and year of the Elder Scrolls 6 release date, but it certainly looks like they were given a timeframe they’ve scrubbed from an official document.
This comes in Microsoft’s response to the UK’s CMA investigation of the Activision Blizzard acquisition, with the government recently publishing the documented response itself. In a segment on the response about incentives to keep Call of Duty cross-platform, Microsoft outlines how “decisions regarding mid-sized games are not evidence of Microsoft’s incentives as they relate to Call of Duty,” basically saying games that are markedly smaller than Call of Duty and Minecraft cannot be used to show Microsoft’s strategy with those franchises.
Microsoft then uses the Elder Scrolls 6 as an example, which will be exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, writing: “Titles such as Elder Scrolls 6 (which is not expected to be released before [REDACTED] with the last instalment in the series being released in 2011),
as well as other future titles, will not involve Microsoft forgoing ca. USD [REDACTED] per annum of revenue from PlayStation customers or disenfranchising ca. [REDACTED] million MAU on PlayStation.”
You can find Microsoft’s full response on the UK government’s Microsoft and Activision Blizzard merger inquiry (thanks UESP_net).
So while removing the figures, Microsoft has basically told the CMA the broad Elder Scrolls 6 release date, or at least when it won’t be releasing before. I imagine this release date given is just a year number, and is likely in the 2026 to 2028 range, with the Starfield release date set for after Redfall in 2023.
This, like many secrets of the games industry, comes courtesy of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As part of the second phase of the UK’s Competitive and Markets Authority investigation into the acquisition (with many other countries doing the same thing) Microsoft has issued a response, which has now been published.
While the CMA is a non-ministerial part of the UK government, it is still a government department; this is just a warning to stop you from watching any live House of Commons discussions in the hope that the MP for Wythenshawe will drop the Elder Scrolls 6 release date live on air – they don’t know it.
If you can’t wait for the Elder Scrolls 6 release date, we’ve got you covered with the best Skyrim mods to keep you entertained, alongside a Skyrim mod that adds a Starfield story and gadgets to the RPG.