Bethesda's next Elder Scrolls game finally has a full name, if a well-sourced report is right: The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. Tom Warren wrote in Notepad, his newsletter for The Verge, on October 29 that the game is set in Hammerfell, the desert-and-coastline province west of Skyrim. Citing people familiar with Bethesda's plans, he said the name could be announced as soon as November, which marks 15 years since Skyrim launched.
Warren expects a name and nothing more. Bethesda and Microsoft haven't commented, and the report doesn't mention a release window or platforms.
What the report says
There are three claims. The subtitle is Sentinel, the setting is Hammerfell, and this would be the first game in the series built around the history of the Elder Scrolls themselves.
In the series' lore, the Elder Scrolls are ancient artifacts that record what has happened and what might. Skyrim players read one at the summit of the Throat of the World to witness a scene from the past and learn how to beat Alduin. So far the scrolls have been rare plot devices. According to Warren, Sentinel would put their secrets at the center of the story.
He also says Bethesda has been showing Sentinel gameplay internally in recent months.
What Bethesda has actually confirmed
Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI at its E3 press conference on June 10, 2018, with a brief teaser that showed a coastline, some mountains and the title card. It said the game was in pre-production. There was no subtitle, no platforms and no date, and Bethesda hasn't shown the game since.
The next official update came in July 2026, in a note from Bethesda Game Studios to players. The studio called The Elder Scrolls VI its primary focus, said most of the team is working on it and confirmed it runs on Creation Engine 3, the new version of its in-house engine. The same note announced the Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters, also without dates.
On August 11, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma posted on X that she had watched a live playthrough of "The Elder Scrolls VI," with the subtitle replaced by eight asterisks. Sentinel has eight letters. It fits the report, though plenty of words have eight letters.
Platforms are still unannounced. During Microsoft's 2023 court fight with the Federal Trade Commission, then-Xbox chief Phil Spencer said they hadn't been decided. Microsoft has since started bringing its games to PlayStation, with Forza Horizon 6 arriving on PS5 on January 26, but it hasn't said anything about this one.
Why Hammerfell and Sentinel sound familiar
Hammerfell is the homeland of the Redguards, on the west coast of Tamriel, the continent where the series takes place. Players have visited it before in Daggerfall (1996), the spin-off The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (1998) and the still-running The Elder Scrolls Online. Sentinel is one of its major port cities and the name of one of its kingdoms.
Fans have floated the name since 2023, when a Redditor turned an employee number in Starfield's character creator into letters and got SENTINEL. In August, former series writer Michael Kirkbride, who no longer works at Bethesda, replied "Yep" to a fan suggesting that title. Warren is the first reporter with sources inside the company to put the name in print.
How much to believe it
Warren has broken internal Microsoft and Xbox news for years, and his report lines up with the two earlier hints, Sharma's asterisks and the Starfield theory. The name and the Hammerfell setting look solid. The timing is the shakier part, since Warren himself says the reveal "could come as soon as next month."
If Bethesda names the game around November 11, Skyrim's anniversary, the report is confirmed. If November passes quietly, Sentinel could still be the name, but the timing would have been wrong.
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