Elder Scrolls 6 Engine Gets Reported Unreal Engine Enhancements

Bethesda’s next big Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls 6 (TES 6), is said to be going through a major engine revamp, with some talk that certain Unreal Engine technologies will be mixed into the studio’s own Creation Engine. The info comes from Jez Corden, who usually has a good track record with Microsoft and Bethesda leaks. He’s been hinting that a lot of what’s happening in Starfield is connected to TES 6, and even could affect future games like Fallout 5.

Corden, who shared early info on Oblivion Remastered well before it was officially announced, talked about this on the December 19 episode of The Xbox Two podcast. He explained how Bethesda is updating Creation Engine, adding in some external tech, and how that’s all linked with Starfield and the studio’s next big projects.

Microsoft Helping Bethesda With Engine Stuff

Apparently, Microsoft, which owns Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media, is helping with some internal tech support. Corden mentioned Kate Rayner, Technical Director at The Coalition, as being involved. The goal seems to be to take a few Unreal Engine features and fold them into the Creation Engine, instead of switching over completely.

This is different from Oblivion Remastered, which authentically adopted Unreal Engine 5 for visuals but kept the older Gamebryo engine for game mechanics. TES 6 is supposed to remain fully with Creation Engine, just with a few selected Unreal features like new lighting systems to make the visuals nicer.

Starfield Used as Testing Ground For TES 6

Before TES 6 actually gets all these upgrades, Starfield is sort of acting like a testing ground for them. Corden mentioned that Starfield had this “lumens” branch in its Steam updates. That’s part of Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen lighting stuff, which makes lights and shadows react in real time instead of being pre-baked.
Corden also pointed out that TES 6 isn’t going to run completely on Unreal Engine; it’s just borrowing a few pieces.
Engine Upgrade Scope

It’s not really clear how much TES 6 is getting updated. Looks like it’s smaller than what Bethesda did for Starfield, which Todd Howard called “probably the largest” engine update ever. He said TES 6 will get some of those improvements.

By mid-2025, Corden said it was “quite playable,” though probably just pre-alpha since real work only started in late 2023. Howard added in December 2025 that it’s “progressing really well,” but don’t expect it before 2028.

James Steward

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