A new release date prediction for The Elder Scrolls VI has left fans disheartened.

The Elder Scrolls VI was formally announced way back in 2018, but Bethesda has had its hands full with Starfield and other projects up until recently.

The last official development update we heard is that the game is still in its initial design phase, and wouldn’t arrive until around “2026” at the earliest.

Now, a new release date prediction from a former Bethesda developer has sparked discussion as fans are downhearted at the news.

In an interview with YouTube channel KIWI TALKZ, former Bethesda developer Nate Purkeypile speculated on the development pipeline for The Elder Scrolls VI and shared his prediction of when the game may arrive.

“They’re probably just now getting to full production,” Purkeypile revealed during the interview.

In response to a question if the game could come in 2029, he stated: “Yeah. If any game is going to get delayed […] I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s pretty late.”

Purkeypile worked at Bethesda Game Studios as a lead artist between 2007 and 2021, working on games like Fallout 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76. He left the company in 2021 to open his studio, Just Purkey Games.

With such a huge wait between releases, some fans aren’t feeling confident in the game’s development quality.

“Almost 20 years,” one comment wrote. “I remember when 6 year gaps were big. Bethesda has certainly lost their way along the road. I don’t have high expectations for TES VI. It’s going to be a mess.”

“In some ways, it can be earlier,” a commenter on Reddit wrote. “No pandemic to get through, already have major rewrite of engine, much much bigger team to work with, etc. So 2026 is not unreasonable.”

The last mainline Elder Scrolls game was Skyrim, released for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in 2011. It has since received several remasters and ports on other platforms. So it will indeed be nearly two decades if the rumoured 2029 release date happens.

Since then, Bethesda has released a few spin-offs from the franchise, with The Elder Scrolls Online launching in 2014, Legends in 2017, and Blades in 2020.