Bethesda Game Studios has split its near-term future between two long-horizon franchises, but only one is getting the bulk of the team right now. Todd Howard said Fallout 5 is in preproduction, while The Elder Scrolls VI is the studio’s primary development focus.
The update arrived Friday after sweeping layoffs at Xbox earlier this month. For players, that means the next Fallout entry is still a far-off project, not a release window the studio is prepared to put on the board.
Todd Howard’s Friday note
“Our teams are now developing The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 on Creation Engine 3, a shared technology platform we’ve been building since Starfield’s launch,” Howard said in the studio update note to fans. He added, “It allows our teams to support multiple projects simultaneously with new tools, rendering, and systems that define our games.”
Howard also said, “Fallout 5 is currently in preproduction,” and that “The Elder Scrolls VI is our primary development focus today, with the majority of our team currently working on the next chapter of the franchise.” That is the practical answer hidden inside the announcement: Bethesda is not balancing both franchises evenly. The Elder Scrolls project has the larger share of people and attention.
65 million copies of Skyrim
“With over 65 million copies sold, players are still exploring Skyrim 15 years later, but we know it’s been a very long wait for the sequel. The next chapter is on the way. We’re where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day,” Howard said. That line does more than reassure fans; it signals that the sequel is now into the kind of internal work where the studio is testing and iterating daily rather than framing it as a concept on paper.
Howard also said Bethesda Game Studios has multiple Fallout projects in active development right now, including a new Fallout project with Obsidian Entertainment. He said Fallout 5 “remains our long-range destination,” which is the clearest sign that the series is still queued behind the next The Elder Scrolls chapter rather than moving into a full launch push.
Starfield in Year 3
“With over 17 million players logging almost a billion hours to date, Starfield remains an important part of our future,” Howard said. He added that the game will keep expanding the Settled Systems with new stories, targeted gameplay improvements, and additional updates as the team enters Year 3.
Howard said new Starborn content is planned for next year. For Bethesda, that keeps Starfield active while the studio’s larger production weight sits on The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 stays in preproduction. The only real open question left is when either franchise gets a release date, and Bethesda is not putting one on the table yet.
