Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard has published a fan-facing update confirming "The Elder Scrolls VI" remains the studio's "primary development focus," with most of the team working on it, while "Fallout 5" is now in preproduction rather than full development. The statement, issued on Friday, follows sweeping layoffs at parent company Xbox earlier this month and appears designed to reassure players about Bethesda's direction amid the wider upheaval at Microsoft's gaming division.

Howard said both titles are being built on Creation Engine 3, a shared platform developed since "Starfield" that lets teams work on multiple projects at once. He noted "Skyrim" has sold over 65 million copies and is still played 15 years on, acknowledging the long wait for its sequel, and confirmed several Fallout projects are in active development, including one made with Xbox studio Obsidian Entertainment. Xbox is cutting up to 3,200 jobs, or 20% of its workforce, in what new CEO Asha Sharma has called its most significant restructuring; at least 1,600 staff have already been laid off and 350 more eliminated through divested studios since the announcement on 6 July.