Who's really to blame for Elder Scrolls 6's delays: Todd Howard or Microsoft?
What YouTube comments actually reveal about who's responsible for the ES6 mess, backed by numbers.
Less active topic: the discussion has quietened down and this page is no longer refreshed. The figures and quotes below date from 14/07/2026 and are kept as an archive.
The context
On June 10, 2018, at Bethesda's E3 conference, Todd Howard officially announced The Elder Scrolls VI with a brief teaser trailer, confirming the title was in pre-production and would launch after Fallout 76 and Starfield.
On September 21, 2020, Microsoft announced it would acquire ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent company, for $7.5 billion; the deal closed in March 2021, folding Bethesda Game Studios into Xbox Game Studios.
In June 2023, Xbox chief Phil Spencer told an FTC hearing the game remained "five plus years away." By late August 2023, Bethesda's Pete Hines confirmed the title had exited pre-production and entered active development as Starfield's launch approached.
In July 2026, Xbox layoffs affected more than 50 Bethesda Game Studios employees; several staff members, quoted by IGN, voiced fears of delays and increased workload, with no official release date announced to date.
Sources: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and its game publisher Bethesda Softworks · The Elder Scrolls 6 is out of 'pre-production' but Pete Hines says it will be 'years' before we hear more · A breakdown of everything we know so far about The Elder Scrolls 6 · The Elder Scrolls 6 Will Suffer Because of Xbox Layoffs, Bethesda Staff Say
Factual background compiled from public sources — the debate analysis below relies exclusively on the comments.
How we got here
as told by the commentsThe 36-second teaser drops and immediately sparks jokes about the coming wait, without yet pointing fingers at anyone specific.
As Starfield disappoints, commenters start suggesting Bethesda sacrificed ES6 for other projects, opening the responsibility debate.
Todd Howard speaks at length about his passion for the series; some commenters see it as proof of genuine dedication despite criticism.
The revelation that development only truly began in 2023, five years after the teaser, crystallizes accusations of corporate mismanagement.
Commenters increasingly link the teaser to boosting the acquisition price for Microsoft, shifting blame toward corporate structure.
The departure of figures like Kurt Kuhlmann reignites the debate, with some seeing it as a team problem rather than a vision problem, reviving the Todd vs Microsoft question.
The Elder Scrolls VI
~18% of the discussion on this gameOn ES6, the responsibility debate mostly centers on whether Todd Howard mismanaged priorities personally, or whether Microsoft/Bethesda structurally failed to organize development. Both camps use the same facts (delays, Starfield, Fallout 76) to reach opposite conclusions.
Blame Todd Howard 45 %
Blame Microsoft/corporate structure 55 %
Frequently asked questions
- Who do commenters blame most for Elder Scrolls 6's delays?
- The corpus leans slightly toward blaming Microsoft and Bethesda's corporate structure (~55%), though Todd Howard remains personally targeted (~45%) for his creative and prioritization choices.
- Is the Microsoft acquisition seen as a cause of the problem?
- Yes, a significant portion of comments link the 2018 teaser to a financial strategy tied to the acquisition, and criticize Microsoft for lacking oversight since then.
- Are Fallout 76 and Starfield used as evidence in this debate?
- Constantly. Both games serve as evidence for either camp: either as Todd Howard's personal failure, or as a symptom of poor resource allocation by the corporate structure.
- Does this responsibility debate extend beyond ES6 to other games?
- In this corpus, the debate stays centered on Elder Scrolls 6, but commenters regularly bring in comparisons to Fallout 76 and Starfield as supporting or mitigating evidence.