The Elder Scrolls VI

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About

The Elder Scrolls VI is an upcoming role-playing video game in the The Elder Scrolls series developed by Bethesda Softworks. The game was officially announced in June 2018 with a short teaser and is expected to be released at least as late as 2026. Since its announcement, TES6 has been referenced in numerous memes and other forms of content online, especially related to the long gap between its release and the previous title.

History

On June 10th, 2018, during the E3 2018 video game conference, Bethesda Softworks officially announced^[1] The Elder Scrolls VI, the next major installment in The Elder Scrolls role-playing video game series and a sequel to the 2011 video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. On that day, the company shared the announcement teaser for the game on YouTube^[2] and X^[3] / Twitter, where it accumulated over 17 million views and 62,000 reposts and 114,000 likes in six years, respectively (shown below).

On September 18th, 2023, documents obtained from the FTC vs. Microsoft case revealed that The Elder Scrolls VI will not be released on PlayStation consoles and won't be released until at least 2026.^[4]^[5]

On March 25th, 2024, on the 30th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda Game Studios confirmed that The Elder Scrolls was in development and in a playable state.^[6]

Online Discussions

In the years following the announcement, multiple posts reminding people about the amount of time with no news that passed since the announcement were shared. For example, on April 19th, 2023, X^[7] user @vergilswarrior made a Refuses to Elaborate Further meme that received over 6,300 reposts and 86,000 likes in one year (shown below).

On March 25th, 2024, following Bethesda's confirmation that the game was in a playable state, several humorous posts about the announcement went viral. For example, on that day X^[8] user @jessicobra made a post that garnered over 14,000 reposts and 121,000 likes in one day (shown below, left).