While there is no Elder Scrolls 6 release date yet we finally have our first official look at the game courtesy of a short teaser trailer. The official Elder Scrolls 6 trailer opens with the classic musical motif from the series and a panning shot of some mountains before the logo appears, confirming that The Elder Scrolls 6 is real.

The thing is, we have already been twiddling our thumbs like good little Dovahkiins since we ventured into the world of Skyrim for hundreds of hours in 2011. We might have been spoilt by excellent games in the series already, but, frankly, we deserve something fresh. It’ll be fresh for a while post-release, too: Bethesda director says we’ll be sinking our teeth in The Elder Scrolls 6’s gameplay “for a decade at least”.

Now, at least, we know that TES 6 is coming and, given Skyrim’s success, that isn’t a surprise. So we have set about discovering the latest Elder Scrolls 6 news and gameplay details, with a generous dollop of speculation for good measure. Here’s everything we know about The Elder Scrolls 6, from settings and gameplay features, to when we might be able to get our hands on it.

THE ELDER SCROLLS 6 RELEASE DATE

It might have been officially unveiled but there is sadly, no confirmed release window for Elder Scrolls 6. Worse still, it looks like we won’t be getting The Elder Scrolls 6 until the next console generation. And only then it’ll be after the Starfield release date.

But this hasn’t stopped the hype around The Elder Scrolls 6 getting the better of some. Analyst Michael Pachter, in 2016, optimistically predicted that The Elder Scrolls 6 release date would be in 2017, which is clearly very, very wrong.

Sorry @michaelpachter but you totally punted this one. You should listen to me (and Todd) more often. 🙂 https://t.co/PBodzub2sv — Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) December 27, 2016

This, of course, we now know to be wrong. In the tweet above Bethesda vice president Pete Hines debunked this theory saying: “Sorry @michealpachter but you totally punted this one. You should listen to me (and Todd) more often.”

THE ELDER SCROLLS 6 TRAILER

Before we crack on with all the juicy news and rumours, here’s the Elder Scrolls 6 trailer. Judging by the terrain, it looks like TES 6 is taking us to either Hammerfell, home of the Redguard people, or High Rock, which is where the Breton race hail from.

The Elder Scrolls 6 news

We’ve not heard much Elder Scrolls 6 news in a while, and Todd Howard knew fans would be restless in the run up to E3 2019. Sadly, there were no ‘one more thing’ style announcements that would blow our minds like last year, so Howard let us down early during Bethesda’s E3 2019 conference. That said, he stressed that the company remains “hard at work” on The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield. Ah well, there’s always E3 2020.

Or maybe not. Pete Hines has announced that Bethesda will not be hosting a digital showcase in June as a result of the global pandemic. However, while we won’t be getting our usual Bethesda E3 showcase, the publisher is listed as a partner for Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, so perhaps we’ll hear more then.

Given the many challenges we're facing due to the pandemic, we will not host a digital Showcase in June. We have lots of exciting things to share about our games and look forward to telling you more in the coming months. — Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) April 1, 2020

Also the recent resolution of a legal dispute with leave excited fans relieved. Rumblings of trouble around the Elder Scrolls 6 Redfall trademark came to end as Bethesda parent company Zenimax and book publisher BookBreeze reach an amicable agreement. In September 2008 Zenimax looked to trademark the term ‘Redfall’, but it clashed with Jay Falconer’s series of the same name. Thankfully everything has been cleared up, otherwise the future of the whole game could have been threatened.

We’re also aware that YouTuber Shirley Curry, more widely known as ‘Skyrim Grandma’, will be an NPC in The Elder Scrolls 6. Bethesda revealed the news during The Elder Scrolls 25th anniversary stream after a fan petition racked up 49,322 signatures to make it happen.

Regarding other NPCs, there will also possibly be a tribute to an Elder Scrolls fan whose dream it was to appear in Skyrim.

Out for a scroll: Here are the best open-world games on PC

We’ve known about a Redfall trademark dispute for a while, with Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax registering for the trademark last year. Many believe that this will be the title for The Elder Scrolls 6 based off the timing of ZeniMax’s registration and a possible connection to the Redguard race who hail from Hammerfell. However, it’s recently been revealed that the final date for the trademark dispute is August, 2020 – so we may be waiting a while for that release date.

Another crumb of Elder Scrolls 6 news comes courtesy of Skyrim composer Jeremy Soule who took to Facebook to announce that he was currently not involved with The Elders Scrolls 6. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Bethesda won’t bring Soule on board at a later date, but it’s interesting that he’s not currently involved – it could be that Bethesda are looking for a new sound or that they’re too early into development to be thinking about music.

There is also an interview between Pete Hines and VGR, which explains the exactly why Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6 at such an early stage: “We were honestly a little tired of being asked about Elder Scrolls 6”. So there you have it, the reveal doesn’t necessarily tell us anything about how far into production the Skyrim sequel is, just that Bethesda are sick to death of fielding the question.

Aside from that and the official reveal at the Bethesda E3 2018 showcase, there has not been much in the name of ‘new’ The Elder Scrolls 6 news for some time, but here’s what we know so far. On YouTube’s Live at E3 stream in 2016, Howard confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 is real and is one of three projects being developed internally at the company. Now we can reasonably assume that the other two projects are Fallout 76 and the eagerly anticipated upcoming space RPG Starfield.

More like this: Adventure out in the best RPGs on PC

Unfortunately, both Hines and Howard have confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 will likely be the last of the three projects to appear. Hines has said that “there’s still two major multiplatform releases has to work on first, and so TES 6 isn’t happening until those games happen.”

“I could sit here and explain the game to you, and you would say, ‘That sounds like you don’t even have the technology. How long is that going to take?” Howard said. “So it is something that’s going to take a lot of time, what he have in mind for that game, and we actually have two other large projects we’re also doing that are bigger than everything we’ve done. People will probably hear about those even before Elder Scrolls 6. That’ll make sense many years from now.”

The Elder Scrolls 6 location

When you see the Elder Scrolls 6 announcement trailer, there are two Elder Scrolls locations that may well spring to mind: High Rock and Hammerfell. Why? Mountains, large areas of coastline, and dry, arid landscapes.

But until Bethesda reveal more we don’t know what the Elder Scrolls 6 setting will be. The past few numbered entries to the series have mostly stuck to one region but, given the ambitious ideas going into the game, The Elder Scrolls 6 might see us travel to multiple regions – we might even see an entire continent, The Elder Scrolls Online-style.

There was some speculation that The Elder Scrolls 6 reveal trailer did not necessarily reflect an in-game setting and was just intended to set the tone. However, Todd Howard has revealed in an interview with Eurogamer that The Elder Scrolls 6 location has been known for a while and that the trailer allows you to rule some locations out.

Whilst discovering the aftermath of our decisions in Skyrim would make a return to Tamriel’s mountainous north interesting, we have our fingers crossed for a trip to a place and time that is completely new to the series in The Elder Scrolls 6.

How about Akavir? This continent to the east of Tamriel is home to the Snow Demons of Kamal, the serpent-men of Tsaesci, the monkey people of Tang Mo, and the Tiger Dragons of Ka Po’ Tun, collectively known as the ‘Akaviri’. Little is known about this enigmatic land, making it a tasty prospect as an Elder Scrolls 6 location.

Legend has it that the few humans that dared to travel to Akavir were eaten by the Tsaesci (we did say it was tasty). Tamriel and Akavir have shared a tumultuous relationship, shaping each other’s history in times of peace and war. Perhaps, in The Elder Scrolls 6, we could smuggle ourselves into the new region, trying to cope with living in a hostile land that very much does not want us. Akavir and Tamriel have long had a tumultuous relationship, and we would love to be a part of that in The Elder Scrolls 6.

Related: Transform Tamriel with the best Skyrim mods

Moving closer to the places we know well, we are itching to pack our bags for Valenwood in The Elder Scrolls 6, homeland of the wood elves, or Bosmer. Located to the south-west of Tamriel and opposite the Summerset Isles, Valenwood is an untamed land, dominated by uninhabited forest wilderness.

There’s Argonia, too. Otherwise known as Black Marsh or – less kindly – the Garbage Heap of Tamriel, it is the home of the reptilian Argonians and is full of onerous swamps and great inland waterways.

The Elder Scrolls 6 races

If The Elder Scrolls 6 does go somewhere completely new, perhaps we will see a few new races added to the formula, with all new lore and gameplay styles to get to grips with.

However, no new races were added to Skyrim, so it is less likely we will see some new species or races if The Elder Scrolls 6 sticks to Tamriel. That said, Sea Elves – also known as Moarmer – do feature in The Elder Scrolls Online, so perhaps they could return in a numbered main entry to the series.

The Elder Scrolls 6 story

One of the things that sets Skyrim apart from the rest of the series is its complex narrative full of political intrigue. Your role in the game’s civil war decides the fate of a troubled kingdom only nominally part of the Empire. Here’s hoping that The Elder Scrolls 6 story takes things to a new level.

Whilst the Elder Scrolls 6 story would, to an extent, depend on the setting and its history, hopefully the narrative of the game will match the ambition going into the game in its early stages.

Although it looks like we’ve got a while to wait until a Elder Scrolls 6 release date, there’s still plenty of news and rumours circulating to pass the time and get excited about.