Skyrim launched almost 15 years ago while The Elder Scrolls 6 is still marinating over at Bethesda Game Studios. Even so, Bethesda apparently never considered having an outside team develop a spin-off game to fill that painfully long gap – as it did once upon a time with Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas.
That’s according to Kurt Kuhlmann, a lead Skyrim developer and the fantasy series’ former loremaster, who told the FRVR podcast that Bethesda is apparently too protective over its golden goose to let anyone else tackle a mainline-style game.
Kuhlmann said Fallout: New Vegas – often considered the best Fallout game in many circles – created lots of discussion around which company did it best. Bethesda or Obsidian? “There are the Obsidian, New Vegas people that think obviously New Vegas is way better, Obsidian is way better at making those games and, ‘Why don’t they just get Fallout altogether?'”
Bethesda supposedly didn’t want those sentiments to follow The Elder Scrolls, as well – Kuhlmann said he doesn’t think director Todd Howard “wanted to create that situation again.”
“Todd, from my time there, he is very protective of it,” Kuhlmann added. “I do think [The Elder Scrolls Online] took the heat off… there was a new Elder Scrolls product and it was ongoing. It was creating new content constantly. There are a lot of people, I mean, I know the single-player people, I’m one of those people–but there are a lot of people to whom The Elder Scrolls is now ESO. That’s their experience with it. That’s what they love. That’s where they got their Elder Scrolls gaming experience, and that’s probably what they want more of.”
It’s worth noting that the former Elder Scrolls loremaster left the studio in 2023, and a lot has changed at Bethesda in the years since. Corporate owner Xbox is reportedly more focused on its biggest of big games nowadays, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls included. As part of the company’s ongoing restructure and mass layoffs, Obsidian is now under the Bethesda umbrella and is even working on a new Fallout game. Perhaps there’s room for a spin-off sometime after The Elder Scrolls 6 eventually comes out, though Bethesda president Jill Braff recently told staff Obsidian’s “creative identity and strengths” will remain intact following the move.