Bethesda Softworks – and the glorious Todd Howard – knew just what to do to tug on our heartstrings during its presentation at E3 2018. From its perfectly fitting rendition of Country Roads during the Fallout 76 reveal to the surprise – but welcome – teaser for The Elder Scrolls VI, it can be argued quite easily that Bethesda ‘won’ this year’s E3. The teaser for TES:VI begs the question, though: why did Bethesda announce the game so early, especially since we won’t have our hands on the game for a few years?

In a recent interview with FZ.se, Bethesda Marketing VP Pete Hines revealed the ‘why’ behind the early reveal. “A couple of years ago I talked to Todd [Howard] about clarifying with everybody that TES6 was not going to be our next game, and we had two other big games that we wanted to do first,” he said. “So we had already put that out there several years ago, but we were very vague on what those other two titles were.”

So it was just in conversations with him [and] folks on my team to say, look, why don’t we consider putting out a little bit more of a roadmap for the studio that explains to folks, ‘Here’s what we’re doing—yes, we’re making this game called Starfield and here’s what it is, and yes, we’re going to make Elder Scrolls 6, but we have these other two games to develop and make first.’ It’s just so that folks have a better sense of where we are and where we’re headed.”

Ultimately, the decision to announce The Elder Scrolls VI at the end of Bethesda’s E3 presentation made sense, especially given the multiplayer-heavy nature of the other games that debuted. Fans understandably could have been put-off when an Elder Scrolls title was revealed, only to find out that it was a mobile game centered around the Blades. Announcing TES:VI at the end of the presentation helped Bethesda win people back over, while also promising once more that the anticipated title was indeed still on its way. “We are going to do a game that’s just single-player next time around, and yes, we are going to get to Elder Scrolls 6,” Hines said.

There’s going to be a long time before we’re ready to talk about what those are, because we want the time between when we start to talk about it and it comes out to not be two years long or three years long. But it just gives folks a better idea of where we’re headed and understanding what the studio is working on and trying to do.”

It will likely be quite some time before The Elder Scrolls VI pops up on the radar again, though at least we still have Fallout 76 to look forward to in the meantime, which launches on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 14th, 2018.

So, thoughts on Hines’ comments regarding the early reveal of TES:VI? Are you looking more forward to that, or Fallout 76? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!