Skyrim's lead designer says Elder Scrolls 6 will 'almost' fail to meet fans' expectations: 'Marketing Departments just weep and put their heads into their hands'

We're all excited about The Elder Scrolls 6, despite the fact it is only a vague idea from a public standpoint. Anticipation is good for developers--certainly better than nobody caring about what you're getting up to--but in this particular case it might present a problem for Bethesda. Bruce Nesmith, a Bethesda veteran, said in a recent interview that it would be "almost impossible" for the game's release to meet expectations.

According to Nesmith Bethesda has a big problem with this, as it has had a "hell of a run" with open world RPGs. This spans more than 20 years, starting with The Elder Scrolls series, and culminating with Skyrim. Skyrim is still a landmark title. The game is still incredibly popular, attracting thousands of players every day on Steam alone, despite its original release in 2011. It's not a revelation that's new, but it is interesting to hear from someone who has worked at Bethesda over the years.

Nesmith said that "the fans who want Elder Scrolls 6 will have expectations that are almost impossible to meet." "And marketing departments put their heads in the hands and weep over this." It's like "Okay, if the movie isn't flawless, and it doesn't receive a Metacritic score of 95 or higher, we're failures."

Nesmith, who is well-versed in managing expectations, said that Bethesda tries to do so by comparing the game to the other games they have made. "Elder Scrolls 6 will undoubtedly be an amazing title, but it will be compared to the other games Bethesda has produced."

Bethesda's Starfield has already met the wall of unsurmountable expectations. Starfield was by most measures good, but not fantastic. This has resulted in an average Steam rating of less than 60% and a general feeling that the game is a failure.

Todd Howard attributed a lot of this to the fact that Starfield was "different from what you've seen in the past" which you can debate as per your own preference. It does, however, indirectly show that the next Elder Scrolls title will be facing even higher expectations. Starfield is given some slack for being a new game, but Elder Scrolls 6 not so much? is the next Elder Scrolls.

All that pressure isn’t entirely a bad thing. Nesmith said that the weight of Bethesda’s legacy was "a blessing and curse," as it meant the development team would be given the resources they need to try to clear this bar. He added that it's not unique to Bethesda.

"Imagine that you worked at Larian Studios for a second," he said. "They just released Baldur’s Gate 3 and now they have to make another game. What are the expectations for that studio's upcoming project? Larian wasn't a studio everyone was thinking about, and didn't come to the lips of most people who bought videogames. They weren't considered by everyone to be a top publisher. Guess what? Now they are. "They're on the map, and that means expectations are sky-high for them."

Bethesda doesn't have to worry about it right away. At this point we don't know the full title or the location of the game, let alone a release date. It could be released in 2026 if you're very optimistic, but I wouldn't be shocked if it wasn't until closer to 2030.