More than eight years after a 2018 E3 teaser, Bethesda Game Studios has confirmed its next flagship RPG is called The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. Todd Howard made the reveal in a video marking Bethesda Softworks' 40th anniversary, ending the retrospective with the game's logo and subtitle.

The anniversary video ends with a short teaser showing a scroll buried beneath a sand dune, followed by a quote from Yazar, Moth Priest of High Queen Iradne of Hammerfell (4E 206). That in-universe date would place Sentinel five years after Skyrim's events.

The Verge notes that Sentinel is a city in the Hammerfell province, home of the Redguards, previously seen in The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard and The Elder Scrolls Online. Insider Gaming adds the province once hosted the Dwemer, giant goblins, and the Orsimer.

The confirmation came in a video — under ten minutes per The Verge, about eight minutes per Insider Gaming — uploaded to the Bethesda Softworks YouTube channel, hosted by Todd Howard as he recounted the studio's four-decade history from early sports titles like Gridiron (1986) through Morrowind, Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Starfield.

The reveal lands with a dose of vindication: Polygon reports that fans started theorizing the Sentinel title just days before Bethesda confirmed it.

The name also surfaced indirectly weeks earlier — Insider Gaming notes Xbox CEO Asha Sharma posted it under asterisks on social media without realizing she had given the game away.

In August, Sharma visited Bethesda and wrote that she played the game, calling its "scale and grandeur" incredible and its story "even greater," according to Polygon — though that visit occurred during protests over Xbox layoffs and studio closures.

Two outlets suggest Sentinel may finally put the series' namesake artifacts front and center.

Polygon reports rumors that the story will focus on the history of the Elder Scrolls themselves — mysterious magical artifacts holding archives of the past or prophecies of the future, whose true origin remains unknown despite being plot devices across five games.

The Verge states plainly that Sentinel will be the first game about the history of the Elder Scrolls and will help uncover the secrets of these ancient artifacts.

Bethesda tempered expectations immediately, with its official X account stating that "it'll be some time before we're ready to share more," per MP1st.

The timing track is sobering: Howard said in 2021 the game could arrive 15–17 years after Skyrim, and Variety notes it only entered active production in 2023 after Starfield.

Still, MP1st reports Sharma is pushing faster development cycles on the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises — so gameplay may be a long way off, but the clock may finally be ticking faster.