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Yesterday, after eight years of waiting, Bethesda finally gave The Elder Scrolls 6 a title: Sentinel. It then warned that, after eight years of waiting, more waiting is in store because “it’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more.” Then Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, one of the industry’s best-known and most reliable reporters, weighed in, saying the game is “still more than two years away.”
You know what comes next, right?
Schreier’s ‘two more years’ statement, echoed by Jez Corden of Windows Central, attracted quite a range of comments, not all of them of the polite sort. That led Schreier to Reddit, where he could elaborate on his statement.
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Pointing out his record of accurate calls on previous Bethesda releases Fallout 76 and Starfield, Schreier wrote, “I’m a reporter. I am not telling you this because I enjoy watching people get mad about having to wait for sequels to their favorite video games. I am telling you this because it is true, and because my job is to report accurate facts and clear up misinformation. TES6: Sentinel is more than two years away.”
Did this clarification calm the roiling waters? Well…
Many of the replies are understanding, grateful, and sympathetic to Schreier’s plight, but there are plenty that express doubt or distrust, suggesting that the two year window was pure speculation. Others want to know why Bethesda would drop the title announcement yesterday if the game really is that far out, given that Todd Howard has previously expressed regret about revealing The Elder Scrolls 6 so prematurely in the first place. Why repeat that mistake?
A few optimistic souls are holding onto the dream of a 2027 release that emerged from the reveal trailer for Skyrim on the Nintendo Switch 2:
TES6 IN 2027?
from r/TESVI
And then there are the Elder Scrolls fans operating on a whole different level from the rest of us. Redditor Reacryoum, for instance, thinks Bethesda is leading up to a surprise trailer drop on November 11—that’s actually one of the more grounded theories to emerge over the past 24 hours. Casting back to one of Bethesda’s old Twitter posts, Jayehemcee speculated that the theme of the game is “time,” and that this is all part of the game’s marketing. I’m not sure how that one works in practice, frankly, but I respect the ambition.
Minimum-Act-7571 put forth the idea that Bethesda is actually messing with Schreier by intentionally feeding him false information, because it’s super mad at him spilling the beans all the time—although they also admitted that it’s a “new copium theory,” and so perhaps not meant to be taken entirely seriously.
I think the best of the bunch, though, is this one from Any-West7160, who believes the Sentinel title reveal contains the actual release date: November 11, 2027. I don’t believe it, but I like it.
They Gave Us the Release Date Today
from r/TESVI
Here’s the video in question—what do you see in the stars?
Watch On
The best videogame conspiracy theories are always the most bonkers, but what complicates the situation just a wee little bit for Sentinel is that one such theory was actually correct: The Sentinel subtitle was stashed away in a Starfield easter egg for years before anyone noticed. Maybe it was just a coincidence, sure, but the numbers don’t lie, as the saying goes—and those numbers said Sentinel. And they were right!
So there’s precedent there, pretty certainly, but it’s also a lot easier to drop in a reference to a locked-in-stone game title than it is to do the same with a relatively far-off launch date that’s subject to disruption and delays. And as others have pointed out, including Schreier, it’s extremely unlikely that anyone is just lying about the far-off release window for a little bit of PR pop: Evasion and word games are one thing, but straight-up dishonesty will leave your credibility in shreds pretty much instantly.
What it all adds up to, ultimately, is this: Two more years of waiting and maybe more, plenty of hopium and copium along the way, and a wise piece of advice from Vanquisher_84 which will almost certainly go unheeded:
See you in 2029?
