Starfield Trend Means Good News for The Elder Scrolls 6

by

With the recent major expansion for Starfield, Bethesda seems to be changing how it supports its games after release. This could be good news for The Elder Scrolls 6, potentially meaning it will receive updates and new content for a longer period than previous games in the series. Traditionally, Bethesda’s biggest updates came within the first year after a game launched, but Starfield has shown they may be moving away from that pattern.

So, the first big expansion for Starfield, called Shattered Space, dropped on September 30, 2024 – about a year after the game first came out. Honestly, based on how Bethesda usually does things with games like Fallout 4 and Oblivion, I figured Shattered Space would be the last expansion we’d get. But then, almost two years later, they surprised us with the Terran Armada DLC! It was a cool twist, because I was expecting it to be done after Shattered Space.

The Elder Scrolls 6 Might Be a True 10-Year-Content Game

Bethesda’s Todd Howard recently told YouTuber MrMattyPlays that the studio is planning for games with long-term support, envisioning a decade of content for each title. This suggests Bethesda may move away from relying so heavily on fan-created mods to keep players engaged and instead focus on releasing official expansions. The April 7, 2026 release of the Terran Armada update for Starfield – almost three years after the game’s launch – could be an indication that this new approach is already underway.

Bethesda Games’ Expansion Release Cadence

Game Expansion Title
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Tribunal (2002), Bloodmoon (2003)
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Knights of the Nine (2006), Shivering Isles (2007)
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Dawnguard (2012), Hearthfire (2012), Dragonborn (2012)
Fallout 4 Far Harbor (2016)
Doom Eternal The Ancient Gods: Part One (2020), The Ancient Gods: Part Two (2021)
Starfield Shattered Space (2024), Terran Armada (2026)

I was really interested to hear Todd Howard talking to MrMattyPlays, and he actually admitted Bethesda hasn’t always supported their older games as well as they should have. He said they look back and wish they’d kept things like Skyrim and Fallout 4 going for longer. But the exciting part is what he said about The Elder Scrolls 6! He hinted that their support for it won’t just be about adding new stuff, though he didn’t say how exactly. It sounds like we could be getting major expansions for The Elder Scrolls 6 for a long time after it comes out, which is awesome!

It’s positive that Starfield will continue to receive updates, but it hasn’t fully satisfied many Bethesda fans. A lot of players feel updates addressing major issues have been slow to arrive, and they didn’t find the recent Shattered Space and Terran Armada expansions substantial enough. They worry that if The Elder Scrolls 6 follows a similar pattern of slow and limited post-launch support, it might not keep players engaged for the long term.

Guess the games from the emojis.

Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)

Gamoji

Guess the game from the emojis.

Time Left: 00:00

Title

—

Clues

—

Results

0 POINTS
—
More Games
Answers

Title

—

— Clues

—

—

It’s also possible it’s too soon to say if Bethesda has really changed how they support games after launch. Starfield is still relatively new, and while it’s different from their usual DLC releases, it’s only had two expansions so far. Still, this change in Starfield‘s update schedule, even if it’s small, is a positive sign. We can hope that The Elder Scrolls 6 will get even more updates and expansions for years to come, making it the first single-player Bethesda game to receive long-term support.

Read More

2026-05-15 16:04