Eight years after a teaser that showed nothing but mountains, Bethesda has finally given The Elder Scrolls VI a name. On Tuesday, Nov. 3, Todd Howard closed out a video called Celebrating 40 Years of Bethesda Game Studios by revealing the title: The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel.

Howard said the anniversary was the “perfect time to tell you what The Elder Scrolls 6 is actually called.”

Around 10:09 AM ET, Bethesda Game Studios posted the reveal on X: “Today we’re sharing with you all the name of the next Elder Scrolls title (did you guess correctly?)” The 62-second teaser attached to that post shows a scroll buried in sand dunes before the logo rises out of the desert. Then a quote appears on screen: “The scroll offered only a shimmer, a veil thinly lifted to my eyes. A future lost. A victory undone. Sands of time scattered by fate.” It’s credited to Yazar, Moth Priest of High Queen Iradne of Hammerfell, in the year 4E 206. That puts the story about five years after Skyrim. The name points to Hammerfell, home of the Redguards, where Sentinel is one of the major cities.

That was everything. There was no gameplay, no release date and no platforms, and the Xbox Wire post was just the logo. Bethesda Game Studios followed up with a statement: “Development continues, and while it’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more, it feels great to finally reveal the name and location with you.” Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has reported that the game is still more than two years away.

Fans saw the name coming. Back in August, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma teased “The Elder Scrolls VI: ********,” and eight asterisks is exactly how many letters are in “Sentinel.” The Verge also reported last week that the name would drop in November, the month Skyrim turns 15.

The reaction on X was huge. By early Wednesday the official Bethesda Game Studios post had about 7 million views and nearly 79,000 likes, and DiscussingFilm’s post of the teaser had another 6.2 million views. The excitement came with plenty of jokes about the wait, with one fan saying it’ll be fun to play Sentinel “in 2050... if I’m lucky,” and another calling it the official start of the road to Elder Scrolls 6 “... again.”

The road here

Skyrim came out on Nov. 11, 2011, and it never really left. Bethesda kept putting it back out: the Special Edition in 2016, versions for Switch and VR in 2017, and the Anniversary Edition in 2021. That’s how one game ended up carrying a whole decade.

The Elder Scrolls VI was first announced at E3 on June 10, 2018, with a short teaser and Howard telling fans it was a long way off. A few months later, Fallout 76 launched full of bugs and broken servers. In September 2020, Microsoft agreed to buy Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax for $7.5 billion, and the deal closed in March 2021.

Starfield, Bethesda’s first new universe in 25 years, came out on Sept. 6, 2023, for Xbox Series X|S and PC. Critics liked it, and it holds an 83 on Metacritic. Players were a lot cooler on it, and its user score sits at 6.8. The conversation around it was more about loading screens and empty planets than anything that happened on them. Then on April 7, 2026, Starfield came to PS5, two and a half years after Microsoft sold it as an exclusive. The PS5 version scores a 78.

Where I stand

The success of the previous Skyrim has been their biggest win but also their recent downfall. Bethesda with every entry past the legendary Skyrim has strayed further from the formula that everyone fell in love with, and with Starfield, it seems more like Bethesda is begging players to give it a chance instead of needing to order extra shipments for a midnight release. The good will that most fans gave the company slowly faded over the years and today, even I can’t confidently trust what they’ll release next.

However, new leadership at Xbox has sparked new hope in many and a double down in others. Phil Spencer stepped down in February after 12 years running Microsoft’s gaming business. On Feb. 20, Microsoft named Asha Sharma, who had been running its CoreAI product group, CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Matt Booty became chief content officer, and Xbox president Sarah Bond left the company. In her first message to staff, Sharma promised to “recommit to our core Xbox fans and players.” Microsoft’s gaming division now goes by Xbox, with Sharma as its CEO.

Either way, THIS game and these next few years will make or break not only Bethesda but the future of Xbox in the hands of one of its biggest recent investments. Microsoft paid $7.5 billion for ZeniMax, and Sentinel is the game that has to prove it was worth it.

Todd Howard speaks a good game and we expect it. This time, he’s going to have to show he’s been listening just as well, because the fans won’t forgive a mediocre Elder Scrolls.