Todd Howard kinda wishes he hadn't announced The Elder Scrolls 6 the way he did

You may have heard about a little space game called Starfield, the gravitational pull from which risks swallowing all games discourse for months and possibly years to come. Perhaps that's no surprise for a game that's been in development and hyped for as long as any title that I can remember (well, ones that have shipped anyway) but it's easy to forget now the thing's in our hands that it was subject to multiple delays along the way.

Xbox’s head of gaming says The Elder Scrolls 6’s exclusivity still hasn’t been decided.

In an interview with Famitsu, Starfield lead and Bethesda frontman Todd Howard stated that the game's mod support «will be available next year» (obtained via machine translation), which likely refers to Starfield's equivalent to the Creation Kit modding tools for Skyrim and Fallout 4.

Bethesda is celebrating its successful launch of Starfield into the marketplace. The video game was quite a massively anticipated title for fans. Likewise, this is Bethesda’s first new RPG in a very long time. So having a new franchise, a new exclusive for Xbox, and after years of developing the game, finally crossing the finish line for the game development is likely allowing the folks from Bethesda to enjoy a bit of a break. However, even with this latest game that just launched into the marketplace, there are questions about what awaits next. For instance, we know that the next game under Bethesda would be The Elder Scrolls 6.

Starfield is officially out, and modders have been working hard creating helpful add-ons, from useful, quality-of-life mods such as revamping the inventory UI to unofficially adding support for DLSS. Others have added more cosmetic things like reskin in-game clothes. And then there are some people out there who keep modding Bethesda's Todd Howard into the game.

The problem with some PC games is that technology is constantly improving. As a result, there’s more room for developers to push the limits with their games. So, it can leave some players having to adjust the settings of current video games to match the capabilities of their PC. But if you’re planning on Starfield being more accessible on older hardware, you might be out of luck. Instead, the optimization for Starfield on PC was done, but it’s also meant for modern hardware. 

Bethesda's Todd Howard and Xbox head Phil Spencer have been on the interview circuit for the launch of Starfield, as part of which the pair granted an interview to Bloomberg Technology. While the questions have a more general business focus and veer into things like Game Pass and the Elder Scrolls 6 (no new info), the show starts with Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow rather starkly putting an audience question to Howard: «why did you not optimise this game for PC?»

Within about half a picosecond of the early release of Starfield, there was already a ruck of mods for Bethesda’s new IP. The numerous ways you can tinker with the space-faring RPG are only going to increase, but for now, how about one that lets director Todd Howard’s face literally shine a light on the situation?

We all knew that Starfield would have a packed Nexus Mods page in its first week of release, but the dedication of the playerbase is still awe-inspiring. We're only on day three of its early access period and there are already 334 mods uploaded to Nexus at the time of writing. 124 of which were shared today. So, it's no surprise that some of them already centre around the main man himself, the one and only: Todd Howard.

It’s officially Starfield Day. At least for those who pre-ordered the Premium Edition (or those were lucky enough to get review copies). In the closing days before the game was released, Bethesda’s own Todd Howard took to the community to express his gratitude at the loyalty and enthusiasm fans were showing.

The Elder Scrolls VI is now in early development, Bethesda has confirmed. Speaking to Spanish publication Vandal, Bethesda's Head of Publishing Pete Hines confirmed that while the hype for Starfield draws ever so close, some developers at the studio have been working on the Tamriel fantasy sequel, which has now left the pre-production stage. Both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 were revealed at the 2018 E3 event, with the former sci-fi RPG being way ahead in the release pipeline. For now, Bethesda is fully focused on its launch and potential post-launch support, and therefore, it'll be at least a few years before we hear any new details about TES 6.

Three things are always in your future: death, taxes, and yet another version of Skyrim. It seems Bethesda boss Todd Howard is in on the joke, even when he's writing internal messages to the rest of the dev team.