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FTC v. Microsoft documents suggest The Elder Scrolls 6 might not come to PlayStation

Like Redfall and Starfield, it appears Bethesda and Microsoft could make The Elder Scrolls 6 exclusive to PC and Xbox platforms.

TJ Denzer

September 18, 2023 9:15 AM

Image via Bethesda

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Despite Microsoft owning Bethesda, it seemed unfeasible that a franchise as massive as Elder Scrolls would ever skip any of the major platforms, but that might be the case with Elder Scrolls 6 and PlayStation consoles. With Starfield out the door and pulling in accolades, many are now wondering about The Elder Scrolls 6, and though Bethesda management like Pete Hines have said it’s years off, recent documents shared some small details about the next game, including seemingly confirming that it won’t be ready before 2026 and will not launch on PlayStation.

Said documents reportedly came out of the FTC v. Microsoft court case regarding Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, as reported by The Verge. In said documents, a page shows a table of Bethesda titles and various details about them, including whether or not they’d release on PlayStation platforms. The table goes all the way back to Deathloop and all the way up to The Elder Scrolls 6. Alarmingly for fans on PlayStation, the table seems to suggest that the current plan is for The Elder Scrolls 6 to skip PlayStation platforms on launch.

While this would be highly unfortunate, it’s not unprecedented. Starfield was also a massively anticipated game in Bethesda’s lineup that arguably delivered in a big way, but there’s absolutely no sign of a PS5 release of the game in sight for the time being. With that in mind, it might not be as surprising if Microsoft and Bethesda have similar plans to skip the PS5 (or PS6) with The Elder Scrolls 6. It will likely be sometime before we know for sure because Xbox’s Phil Spencer and Bethesda’s Todd Howard and Pete Hines have all said that the game is many years away.

Nonetheless, it will be all the more interesting to see what confirmed platforms show up at the end when we finally get The Elder Scrolls 6’s big reveal. As we await that information, stay tuned here at Shacknews for further updates.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.