Last year, Microsoft’s purchase of Zenimax Media and Bethesda sent shockwaves through the video game world.
In one fell swoop, Microsoft got hold of some of the best-known games in gaming, including Doom, Wolfenstein, Bethesda’s upcoming game Starfield and, of course, The Elder Scrolls series of role-playing games.
This likely left quite a few PlayStation owners worried about whether future releases by renowned developer Bethesda Game Studios (now a Microsoft studio) would be hitting the PlayStation 5.
These fears were confirmed when it was announced that Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield would indeed be an Xbox exclusive.
However, until now Microsoft had been a bit ambiguous regarding the next entry in The Elder Scrolls series. Would The Elder Scrolls VI be hitting the PlayStation or not at a future date?
Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer suggested Xbox exclusivity was on the cards for the next entry in the role-playing series back in October 2020, but now in a recent interview with GQ magazine (via IGN) he has almost confirmed PlayStation 5 owners won’t be able to play The Elder Scrolls VI on their console.
This is because while Spencer admitted that he believes that “all of the platforms can continue to grow”, he strongly suggested (and seemingly almost confirmed) the next Elder Scrolls game would stay on the Xbox ecosystem.
“In order to be on Xbox, I want us to be able to bring the full complete package of what we have. And that would be true when I think about Elder Scrolls VI. That would be true when I think about any of our franchises”, Spencer said to GQ.
And this will surely be bad news for anyone who’s gotten hold of a PlayStation 5 (more than 13 million people so far) and was looking forward to playing the next Elder Scrolls game.
After all, Bethesda’s role-playing series is one of the most-loved and best-selling to date, and the latest entry in the series, The Elder Scrolls V, has sold a whopping 30 million copies, and recently got another edition (Skyrim Anniversary Edition), which no doubt is evidence of its enduring popularity. So it makes sense that plenty of PlayStation owners are looking forward to The Elder Scrolls VI, a game they almost certainly won’t be able to play on their fancy new PS5…
All is not lost though, as Bethesda Game Studios’ game director Todd Howard has said in the past that the next Elder Scrolls not appearing on PS5 was “hard to imagine”, so there might be a miniscule chance of The Elder Scrolls VI hitting the PS5 someday.
Also, the game will be coming to PC too, plus it will be playable on Microsoft’s low-cost Xbox Series S console too (as well as on the Xbox Series X of course).
Plus, there’s a possibility the game will be available to play via streaming on Microsoft’s Game Pass service too, giving people another option to access this upcoming game, which is still a long way off in the future.
Actually, given that The Elder Scrolls VI is unlikely to arrive before 2025 (at the very least), this is not something console gamers who favor the PlayStation 5 should be worrying much about. Not being able to play Starfield when it arrives in November 2022 is a more immediate concern, though, so those on PS5 might consider splashing on a Xbox Series X/S or a gaming PC if they want to enjoy the next wave of releases from Bethesda and other Microsoft studios.