If it feels like it’s been a long while since The Elder Scrolls 6 was first announced, that’s because it is. Today officially marks eight whole years since Todd Howard stood on stage at E3 in 2018 and revealed a teaser trailer for the next Elder Scrolls game to the world – and it still hasn’t seen the light of day.

In fairness, Bethesda Softworks has had a lot on since then. Fallout 76 took up a big chunk of the studio’s efforts, as did releasing Starfield in 2023 and the improvements to its in-house Creation Engine. Howard himself has even admitted to revealing the project ‘too soon’, expressing some regret at letting fans in on the game’s development so early.

But the genie can’t go back in the bottle, and although Bethesda has remained extremely tight-lipped about what form the next Elder Scrolls will take, we have heard a few dribs and drabs over the years. In celebration of the teaser trailer’s eight year anniversary, here’s everything we currently know about The Elder Scrolls 6.

Although Bethesda hasn’t officially confirmed where The Elder Scrolls 6 will be set, all evidence is currently pointing towards the northwestern region of Hammerfell and High Rock. This is mostly evidenced by the geography seen in the original teaser trailer with a mountainous region surrounded by coastline.

Hammerfall has already appeared in Elder Scrolls games before, most notably in 1996’s Daggerfall, and of course The Elder Scrolls Online. However, given the massive jump in technology between now and 1996, it’s safe to assume that Bethesda could easily return to the area with a completely fresh take on the landscape.

It’s also thought that the surrounding oceans could play into a new naval exploration mechanic with players able to purchase, customise, and sail their own ships. This will seemingly build upon the spaceship tech used in Starfield, allowing players to recruit crewmates and make their ship their own.

Speaking of technology, Todd Howard has confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 will use an upgraded version of its in-house Creation Engine. While the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 4 used the original version of the engine, Starfield used Creation Engine 2 – and even further enhancements have been made for its third iteration.

We don’t know exactly what those improvements are just yet, but Howard has hinted that they will allow for improved graphical detail, as well as much faster loading times to take advantage of modern console hardware. Given how long some of the load times could be for Skyrim back in the PS3 days, this is music to our ears.

We also know that The Elder Scrolls 6 is currently in a playable state behind the four walls of Bethesda Softworks. During an interview with Kinda Funny earlier this year, Howard confirmed that the team is currently able to play sections of the game, indicating that development is certainly moving in the right direction.

“We’re happy with where we’ve pushed the technology and how the game is coming together. You know, we’re able to play it, we’re about to pass a big milestone internally,” Howard told Greg Miller on a Kinda Funny Gamescast.

Of course, vertical slices of games are often playable quite early on in development. But it’s a great sign that a game of The Elder Scrolls 6’s scale is playable in some state, and that ‘big milestone’ certainly gives us hope that we’ll hear more about the game soon.

A big part of why Skyrim lasted so long with players was due to its extensive modding community, and Bethesda clearly understands that. Howard has already confirmed that TES 6 will also support mods, hopefully ensuring that the game sticks around in the public consciousness for as long as possible.

Talented Skyrim modders have created entire expansions for the game, with some even going on to work at Bethesda themselves. Fallout 4 and Starfield have also seen a dedicated modding community, but nothing will ever quite top what Skyrim managed to achieve during its heyday.

Time will tell if modders are drawn to The Elder Scrolls 6 as much as they were Skyrim.

One thing that seems abundantly clear about The Elder Scrolls 6 is that Bethesda isn’t going to talk about it until the last possible moment. Howard has expressed his regret at announcing the game so early several times over the last few years, explaining that it was only really done to assure fans the franchise wasn’t going anywhere amid the reveal of Fallout 76 and Starfield.

We saw with the stealth release of the Oblivion Remaster that leaving announcements to the last minute can work in Bethesda’s favour. It took a similar approach with the reveal of Fallout 4 in 2015 with an E3 trailer announcing the game in June with a release date five months later in November.

It’s clear that Howard likes to have short gaps between his reveal announcements and when players can actually get their hands on the game. That’s likely to be the case with The Elder Scrolls 6, so while we might still be waiting a little while for more information, it’s uplifting to know that the final game won’t be far off once we do see it materialise.

If I had to guess, I’d estimate that Bethesda is actually targeting a late 2027 release date. Not to get anyone’s hopes up, but given everything Howard has said in the last six months, it really sounds like the game is closer to launch than we might think.

The gameplay reveal trailer for God of War Laufey is packed full of detail and references to the last two titles in the series following confirmation from the series head of creative that it will run in parallel with them.

Since the 20-minute opening of Laufey was revealed at Sony’s State of Play last Tuesday, fans have been picking apart – for better and for worse – and some eagle-eyed fans think they’ve spotted an absolutely heartbreaking spoiler.

Back during the opening moments of God of War (2018), we learn that Faye, Kratos’ wife, has died. We see Kratos and Atreus burn her body, with this being the catalyst that sends them on their quest to scatter her ashes at the highest point in all the realms.

While we get to witness the immediate aftermath of Kratos and Atreus coming to terms with their grief, we never actually learn what caused Faye to pass away in the first place. Flashback cutscenes seem to hint that Faye knew her time was coming, but the game leaves it very open ended as to the circumstances under which she died.

However, after analysing the gameplay reveal of God of War Laufey, fans think they’ve found the devastating answer. It looks like she might have died in her sleep.

As spotted by Reddit user pinkpugita, when Faye awakens in the Everywhen, she immediately looks to her right while asking for Kratos, before looking for Atreus on her left. If we head back to the homestead where the family lived in Midgard, we can see that the layout matches where Faye would have been sleeping alongside Kratos with Atreus in his own cot to her left.

Shortly after Faye sets off, she also makes a comment about how she ‘didn’t get to say goodbye’. This further indicates that she seemingly passed away during the night while everyone was asleep, rather than in some sort of big battle.

Pinkpugita also points out that Kratos doesn’t seem to seek any sort of revenge over Faye’s death, indicating that there isn’t anyone to blame for her demise. “Faye and Kratos made arrangements for her death as we saw in Ragnarok. Kratos seemed to have accepted it will eventually happen,” they write.

Sony Santa Monica has confirmed that, although Kratos isn’t the main protagonist, God of War Laufey is in fact the next chapter in the mainline God of War saga. This bodes well, as Ragnarok still left a bunch of plot threads unravelled that fans are still hoping to see resolved.

For one, we still don’t know who blew the horn to summon Jormungander in the first God of War. The current theory is that it was Faye, but we’re yet to see how that could possibly be given she was thought to be dead.

There are also still plenty of questions left regarding the mask that Odin was investigating. Thankfully, we hear characters like Sekhmet mention the mask directly in the Laufey trailer, so it certainly seems like we’ll learn more on that front soon.

We also still don’t know where all of the giants disappeared to. Given Laufey is a giant herself, I’m really hoping we learn more about what it was she was doing with Tyr before the events of God of War (2018).

The reason for Faye’s death isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things – it served its purpose to send Kratos and Atreus on their character development journey, and it of course means we’re now able to get this brand new chapter in the Everywhen. But it would be great to have a definitive explanation for why Kratos’ family had to be separated in this manner.

There’s currently no release date for God of War Laufey, but it’s thought to be arriving in 2027 as a PlayStation 5 exclusive.