Three years ago this June, Bethesda announced it was working on an entirely new IP called Starfield. Bethesda games are nearly always highly anticipated, and usually have significant staying power. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has sold well on nearly every platform since it was released a decade ago to enormous fanfare. Bethesda's showcases at E3 are often one of the more exciting presentations to watch, because fans have come to expect big announcements and incredible surprises, like Fallout 4 being announced with a release date five months out.
Many fans were delighted to learn that a spacefaring Bethesda RPG was in the works when Starfield was announced, but there has been no additional information on the game since 2018. Even then, the announcement trailer was little more than a title card revealing that Bethesda had something in development. Bethesda has experience in science fiction with the Fallout franchise, but an interplanetary adventure excites in different ways.
It seems as though rumors have been circling about Starfield's release date since it was first announced, but only one thing was made clear by Bethesda: Starfield is coming before The Elder Scrolls VI, which is still many years away. Now though, some credible information on when Starfield might actually be arriving has come thanks to Starfield will be shown at E3 2021, but the game is not launching this year. Instead, fans can expect Starfield late in 2022. The only way to this claim will be to wait for Bethesda's E3 conference, but Schreier is typically trustworthy when it comes to info like this.
What Starfield's 2022 Release Means For Other Bethesda Titles
Bethesda has already stated that The Elder Scrolls VI is coming sometime after Starfield's release, but the latter's long development cycle probably means it's going to be quite a while. If Starfield does come out in 2022, that will be seven years since the developer's last mainline title, Fallout 4. Even an optimistic guess at a 2026 release date for TES6 makes that a 15 year wait since the series' previous entry.
There's no doubt that development cycles for games, especially open world RPGs, are getting longer, but now the next Fallout game seems impossibly far off considering the current timetables. Many fans are hoping Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda will mean more development studios being handed the reigns for more spin-off entries a la Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas. So far nothing has been announced in regards to Microsoft's plans for Bethesda's other IP, but it seems that this year's E3 will be the place too look out for Starfield and Bethesda's larger plans.
Source: Jason Schreier/Twitter
