It has been years since The Elder Scrolls VI was announced. Since its initial teaser trailer back at E3 2018, Bethesda has since then been tight-lipped on how the game has been progressing. But, recent comments from Todd Howard suggest that the game still has a long way to go before we can see anything more than a teaser.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Todd Howard spoke about directing at Bethesda, and how many games at Bethesda are made. Of course, anywhere that Todd Howard goes, questions about the next installment in The Elder Scrolls series are to follow. Howard was sure to taper expectations about when the next update can be expected, saying that The Elder Scrolls VI is still in the design phase.

“It’s good to think of The Elder Scrolls 6 as still being in a design [phase]… but we’re checking the tech: ‘Is this going to handle the things we want to do in that game?’ Every game will have some new suites of technology so Elder Scrolls 6 will have some additions to Creation Engine 2 that that game is going to require,” Howard said.

Howard assured fans in the interview that the time spent working on the next RPG title Starfield will, in turn, lead to a better development process of The Elder Scrolls VI. “The [new Starfield] technology, Creation Engine 2, is sort of built for both [games],” Howard said. “It’s like a new tech base. The vast majority of our development work is on Starfield right now but everybody works on everything so the projects kind of intertwine.”

With Starfield briefly being shown at E3 2021, Bethesda has opened up a bit about its current status. But, Bethesda has given us little to no information about the state of The Elder Scrolls VI, reiterating that the focus is sorely on the upcoming sci-fi RPG, which is due out in 2022. As usual, Bethesda wants to wait until Starfield is almost ready before showing anything concrete, like how they’ve done before with Fallout 4 and DOOM.

Fans will have to wait a while longer for news on The Elder Scrolls VI if these comments are anything to go by. Back in May 2020, Pete Hines replied to a fan on Twitter stating that news would not come until after Starfield is released. And, considering at this time there was no information out about Starfield, fans were already locked into a long wait.

It’s after Starfield, which you pretty much know nothing about. So if you’re coming at me for details now and not years from now, I’m failing to properly manage your expectations.

— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) May 10, 2020

Until we get more information about the next installment in the franchise, the endless speculation will continue. One user on Reddit caught a glimpse of an easter egg in the E3 2021 Starfield trailer which shows an etching of a location from The Elder Scrolls, indicating the next setting for the next game may be in Hammerfell. Until we get official confirmation though, these theories will just keep piling up.