‘Fallout 5’ development will follow ‘Elder Scrolls 6’, and fans are in for another long wait

Fans of Bethesda’s video game franchises are likely used to waiting for new mainline entries for the likes of “Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout.” The good news is Bethesda has confirmed both “Elder Scrolls 6” and “Fallout 5” are part of the studio’s future project. However, this also means players will most likely have to wait many years before both games are released.

Following the Xbox and Bethesda digital event on Sunday, Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard reiterated that the studio would be working on “Fallout 5” as well. However, its development will not be a priority until Bethesda completes “Elder Scrolls 6.” As it stands, the follow-up to “Skyrim” is still in the early stages of development.

“Yes, ‘Elder Scrolls 6’ is in pre-production and, you know, we’re going to be doing ‘Fallout 5’ after that, so our slate’s pretty full going forward for a while,” Howard told IGN. “We have some other projects that we look at from time to time as well.”

At the moment, “Starfield” remains Bethesda’s top priority as the game has been delayed to 2023 instead of launching this November. In the same interview, Howard confirmed its development began in late 2015. There is no definite timeline when it comes to video game development. But the over seven-year gap between the start of production to “Starfield’s” potential release date should give fans an idea of how long they still have to wait for “Elder Scrolls 6” -- even more so for “Fallout 5.”

With both games still, several years away from launch, Bethesda is unlikely to get into more specific details. But what looks more likely at this point is that “Elder Scrolls 6” and “Fallout 5” will likely not have versions for PlayStations consoles. But with the amount of time that will lapse before both games are released, fans can only hope that Xbox’s cloud gaming technology will become more widely available.

In “Starfield’s” case, the game will be released on PC and Xbox Series X/S with day-one availability on Game Pass. It remains to be seen, though, if the game will immediately have Xbox Cloud Gaming support that would allow even mobile and Xbox One users to play the game.