Why The Elder Scrolls Never Got Its Own New Vegas, According to an Ex-Dev

A former Bethesda designer says Todd Howard is "very protective" of The Elder Scrolls, which may explain why the series never got a Fallout: New Vegas-style spinoff.

Ever wonder why Fallout got New Vegas but The Elder Scrolls never got its own outsider-made spinoff? A former Bethesda developer thinks he knows why.

Kurt Kuhlmann, who spent 20 years at Bethesda as a lead designer and senior designer before leaving in 2023, talked about his time on the fantasy RPG series in an interview with FRVR. According to him, the answer comes down to one person: Todd Howard.

Kuhlmann pointed to the way New Vegas changed the conversation around Fallout. "The whole New Vegas thing did create this, at least the perception of this, 'Who makes a better Fallout game? Oh, they should just give it to Obsidian,'" he said. He described the camp of Obsidian fans who believe New Vegas is better and that the studio should just get Fallout altogether.

And that, in his view, is exactly the situation Bethesda didn't want to repeat with The Elder Scrolls. Kuhlmann said he isn't sure "that Todd wanted to create that situation again for The Elder Scrolls," adding, "Todd, from my time there, he is very protective of it."

So what filled the gap? Kuhlmann credits The Elder Scrolls Online, the ZeniMax Online Studios MMO that launched in 2014. It plays very differently from the mainline single-player games, but it gave the franchise a steady presence between numbered entries. "There are a lot of people for whom The Elder Scrolls is now ESO," he explained. "That's their experience with it. That's what they love."

He framed ESO as Bethesda's way of saying, "We're doing something with Elder Scrolls. There is a product for people that want it." That said, Kuhlmann stopped short of confirming whether Bethesda ever formally discussed an Elder Scrolls spinoff at all, so treat this as his personal read on the situation rather than an official statement.

For now, fans waiting on a traditional new chapter still have The Elder Scrolls 6 to look forward to. It was announced back in 2018, and as of 2026 it still looks years away. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma recently posted about seeing a demo, saying "the scale and grandeur are incredible."

Would you actually want an Obsidian-style Elder Scrolls spinoff, or is ESO enough to hold you over? Let us know in the comments.