Elder Scrolls 6 is in 'pre-production', while Starfield is in a playable state
Todd Howard has, inevitably, been quizzed on how far along Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 are, giving us some insight into how long we might be waiting.
Geoff Keighley sat Howard down for a chat after Bethesda's excellent E3 presentation. Right at the end of that presentation, Bethesda hurled two curve balls at us - Starfield, a new all-original IP, and The Elder Scrolls 6, which is now in the works deep within Bethesda.
But Todd Howard didn't say much more than 'these games exist'. Naturally, when Keighley sat down with Howard, he asked how far along the games are, and he got a straightforward answer.
At the 3:45 mark in the video above, after Todd Howard has outlined the production process involved on their games (smaller teams work on their games during pre-production before most of the development team comes on board for proper full production), Keighley asks if Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 are "in production".
"I would say Elder Scrolls 6 is in pre-production, and Starfield is in production. It's a game we've been making for a while", Howard said. When asked if that meant that Starfield existed in a playable form somewhere, he responded "oh, yes. Absolutely. That's a good way to say it. Starfield is playable, Elder Scrolls 6, not in that way yet."
This means that Elder Scrolls 6 is a long way away - Howard also said that the technology they want for the games they're making is "getting closer", rather than being available, which suggests that Elder Scrolls 6 is likely to be a PS5 / Xbox 4 game.
The announcement videos, he said, are meant to establish "tone", but also that they featured "some things to pick apart" for avid fans.
The rest of the interview is worth a listen if you're stilling buzzing from that showcase and want more information about everything shown, too.