Phil Spencer’s Comments Still Leave The Elder Scrolls 6 Fans Guessing Its Exclusivity

Starfield was extensively playtested by Bethesda devs often working from home, and Todd Howard says this approach worked so well that the studio's going to apply the method to its future games, with the studio's next confirmed, albeit far-off project obviously being The Elder Scrolls 6.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has inadvertently shared his opinion on the issues modern AAA games are dealing with - revealing he thinks publishers are "milking" their successful IPs and "struggling" to find new ones. 

Among the chunkier morsels from yesterday's leak of Microsoft documents is an extended email from Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, dating from 2020, in which he argues that today's largest AAA videogame publishers remain dogged by their "failure" to adapt to the shift from physical to digital videogame distribution, and especially, subscription models such as Microsoft's own Game Pass. This inability to move with the times, Spencer suggests, has created a situation whereby the largest publishers rely on sheer "production scale" to attract and retain customers.

It looks like The Elder Scrolls 6 won't be releasing until 2026 at the very earliest, and our PlayStation pals are likely going to be missing out entirely.

A few months back, there was some speculation that The Elder Scrolls 6 might not be an eventual Xbox exclusive, despite Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda. This all came about because Xbox boss Phil Spencer had said that target platforms hadn't been decided yet — but it always felt like his comments were more to do with the game being years away, rather than him hinting at potential plans to allow the RPG on PlayStation platforms.

Starfield is Bethesda's big new release, but now that it’s finally out in the wild, some have already turned their attention toward any incoming news on The Elder Scrolls VI. While some always assumed the game was a good way off, we now know not to expect it for another two to three years at the earliest. 

In news that isn't likely to be much of a surprise to anyone at this point, a newly unearthed Microsoft court document has confirmed The Elder Scrolls 6 won't be making its way to PlayStation when it eventually shows up in 2026 or beyond.

Even though it was announced over five years ago, it appears The Elder Scrolls 6 is still a ways off. And even then, PlayStation 5 gamers might not get a chance to play it. According to newly released court documents from the Microsoft FTC case, The Elder Scrolls 6 will be released only on Xbox and PC and is not expected until 2026 or later.

According to a new court document revealed from the FTC v. Microsoft case, The Elder Scrolls 6 is expected to be released sometime during or after 2026, and is seemingly planned to be released solely on PC and Xbox (via The Verge). 

Xbox doesn't expect The Elder Scrolls 6 to release until at least 2026.

Despite previous reports revealing the game's 2026 release window, The Elder Scrolls VI is at least five years away and is likely to release, unsurprisingly, only on PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.