A newly found Microsoft court document confirms The Elder Scrolls 6 will not be coming to PlayStation in 2026 or later, which is unthinkable to surprise anyone at this point.
The document was submitted by Microsoft as part of its legal battle with the US Federal Trade Commission over its proposed $69 billion USD acquisition of Activision Blizzard - the same court proceedings in which Xbox boss Phil Spencer responded to an FTC attorney's question about The Elder Scrolls 6's Xbox exclusivity by saying, "I think we've been a little unclear on what platforms it's launching on, given how far out the game is." It's difficult for us to pin down right now... It's so far in the future that it's difficult to predict what the platforms will be."
The Elder Scrolls 6 will not be coming to a PlayStation console, despite Spencer's ambiguous response from back in June, according to Microsoft's recently made public court documents.
According to a table intended to illustrate Microsoft's approach to exclusivity following its acquisition of Bethesda in 2021, four of the studio's games - the initially PlayStation-exclusive Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop, as well as Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online - had either released on or continued to be supported on PlayStation at the time. The table also indicates that Bethesda's next three titles - the already released Redfall and Starfield, as well as the upcoming The Elder Scrolls 6 - will be exclusive to the Xbox One and PC.
Of course, this helps tie up a few other loose ends pertaining to another court document filed as part of the FTC's case last year, in which Microsoft lawyers noted "three future titles...will be exclusive to Xbox and PCs." Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 were both assumed to be on that list at the time, which we now know to be correct and thanks to yet another court reveal earlier this year, this time courtesy of Bethesda's Pete Hines, we also know Bethesda's third Xbox and PC exclusive will be Indiana Jones.
When The Elder Scrolls 6 going to finally see the light of day is clearly still some time away. Phil Spencer stated in June that the game, which was announced in the summer of 2018, would most likely be "five-plus years away," given that it is being handled by the same team as the recently released Starfield. According to a newly discovered court document from Microsoft, The Elder Scrolls 6 is "TBC, but expected 2026 or later."