How Bethesda’s Starfield Decision Delayed The Elder Scrolls VI

The expected path after Fallout 4

What Bethesda Game Studios planned to build after Fallout 4 has long been part of the discussion around the developer’s unusually long production cycles. A new account from Kurt Kuhlmann, a former Skyrim co-lead designer and longtime Bethesda developer, offers an inside perspective on that period. According to Kuhlmann, most people at the studio believed the next major project would be The Elder Scrolls VI.

That expectation was understandable. Skyrim’s enormous success had created sustained demand for another entry, while Fallout 4 had reached players in 2015. From the outside, returning to Bethesda’s established fantasy series looked like the natural next step in a rotation between its two best-known worlds. The studio instead chose the much larger unknown of creating an original science-fiction property.

Why Starfield became the priority

Kuhlmann’s account places creative director Todd Howard at the center of the decision. Howard was reportedly determined to make a space role-playing game, taking the wider team in a direction many had not expected to follow immediately. That framing makes Starfield more than a routine scheduling change: it was the result of Bethesda’s ambition to establish its first wholly new universe in decades.

Building a new intellectual property requires a studio to define its setting, visual identity, technology and narrative rules without the foundation supplied by an existing series. The choice therefore did more than swap two projects in a release calendar. It committed Bethesda’s principal development resources for years. The long road to Starfield’s 2023 release consequently pushed the point at which The Elder Scrolls VI could enter full production further out than many players had hoped.

The comments should not be treated as definitive proof of a bitter internal dispute. They are one former senior developer’s recollection of the prevailing expectations at the time. Even with that qualification, the account is revealing because it shows how creative priorities can be set inside a major studio—and how one strategic choice can shape a release pipeline for well over a decade.

What the account means for players

The account provides a clearer explanation for why The Elder Scrolls VI still feels distant so long after its early announcement. Bethesda cannot produce an unlimited number of enormous role-playing games simultaneously, so prioritizing Starfield necessarily affected the order of its other flagship projects. The same logic matters to Fallout players: as Bethesda’s major productions proceed one after another, the wait for a new single-player Fallout grows longer.

At the same time, Starfield gave Bethesda an opportunity to experiment with new systems, a different kind of fiction and an audience beyond its established franchises. Opinions about the result remain divided, but the project was plainly a significant creative and commercial risk. Kuhlmann’s recollection suggests the current schedule was not an accident; it grew from a deliberate decision made years before players saw the finished game.

The most useful takeaway is less about which title deserved priority and more about the real cost of development choices. Selecting one blockbuster does not merely start that project—it postpones other plausible projects. As Bethesda clarifies its future plans, the consequences of balancing resources among Starfield, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout should become easier to see.