Former Bethesda lead artist Nate Purkipyle revealed in an interview that The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced back in 2018 mainly to appease fans who were tired of waiting for a sequel after Skyrim (2011). "We needed to make sure people weren't just angry at us," he explained, noting that such an early announcement was a "very expensive way" to maintain interest. According to him, the studio is not under economic pressure now, but rather a huge responsibility for quality. "The pressure is to make sure the game is really good, and that's great," Perkipail said. He suggested that Bethesda, having learned from the Starfield experience, is now prepared for delays in order to achieve the desired level of quality. As for the timing, the former developer believes that the studio is working to its own schedule and is unlikely to align itself with the releases of other giants such as GTA VI, as their games exist in their "own universe."
Earlier, Todd Howard stated that the development of TES VI is "going very well" and that most of the team is working on the project, but Bethesda is not setting itself the same strict time frame that fans are expecting.