Elder Scrolls 6 boats and naval combat would be a natural fit for the next game, according to former Skyrim lead designer Bruce Nesmith, who said he hopes Bethesda adds them. Video Games Chronicle reported his comments from an interview with GoHumanize. Nesmith does not work on the game, so his remarks are a wish list rather than inside information.
Why Elder Scrolls 6 boats make sense
Nesmith said that if the next entry is set in Iliac Bay and Sentinel, as fan theories suggest, Elder Scrolls 6 boats and perhaps naval combat are the obvious big new features for a setting built around water.
Vehicles have rarely mattered in the series, he noted. Skyrim had carriages, but most players rode them only once. A sea-focused game could change that, and he called Elder Scrolls 6 boats a “dragon-level feature.” He joked that players might also have to fight a kraken, and he floated Sea Elves, a lore group that has not played a big part in the games, as a source of content.
Nesmith also argued against letting players go underwater. He said a Fallout 4 designer once pushed for an underwater area and built a proof of concept, but the team found it too big a project. He would rather Bethesda do the surface well than do both poorly.
What is known about the game
Fans waiting on Elder Scrolls 6 boats should note that Bethesda has not announced a setting, release window or features for Elder Scrolls 6. On Aug. 11, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said on X that she had watched a live playthrough, calling its scale and grandeur “incredible” and its story “even greater,” according to Shacknews.
Nesmith worked at Bethesda from 1995 to 1998 and again from 2004 to 2021, including as lead designer on Skyrim and quest designer on Fallout 3, 4 and 76.
Another former developer, Skyrim co-lead designer Kurt Kuhlmann, told FRVR, as reported by Kotaku, that Todd Howard steered the studio toward Starfield instead of Elder Scrolls 6 and that most of the team wanted to make the Elder Scrolls game.
For more on the studio, read about Bethesda’s credibility problem, how Bethesda trolled Sony and Asha Sharma’s plans for Xbox.
