Bethesda's Todd Howard is looking into ways to make Elder Scrolls and Fallout games quicker

Bethesda Game Studios, the studio behind mainline entries in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, focuses primarily on one game at a time, switching between franchises. However, with the studio spending several years building its epic sci-fi RPG Starfield, it's been over a decade since we got The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and close to a decade since the launch of Fallout 4.

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With the success of the Fallout TV show on Amazon Prime, Fallout 4 is currently one of the most played games on PC and consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. However, With Bethesda Game Studios shifting its focus toward The Elder Scrolls 6 before tackling Fallout 5, it could be a decade before we see a new Fallout game - and years before The Elder Scrolls 6 is done and ready to ship.

Speaking with Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda Game Studios head and Skyrim and Starfield game director Todd Howard is fully aware of the long gap between entries in these iconic and popular franchises - and is looking to rectify it.

"They do take a long time, and so I think one of the things that we're focused on here is making sure they're of the highest quality, but also finding ways to increase our output," Todd Howard said. "Because we don't want to wait that long either. That's never our plan, but we want to make sure we get it right."

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Increasing the studio's output would involve more than simply increasing the headcount. However, Bethesda Game Studios could split into multiple teams - one focused on Elder Scrolls and one on Fallout. As part of Xbox, no doubt Microsoft wants to see a new Fallout game ASAP, too, so perhaps a studio like Obsidian could take the updated Starfield/Edler Scrolls 6 engine to develop a Fallout: New Vegas-style spin-off.

The good news is that Todd and the team love New Vegas. In the same interview with Kinda Funny Games, he said, "[Obsidian] did an amazing job with New Vegas. That's a game that we published. Feargus [Urquhart], who runs Obsidian, is one of my favorite people in the videogame industry. New Vegas is a very, very important game to us and our fans, and we think they did an incredible job."

Basically, it's impossible to see how Microsoft would be okay with Bethesda working on Elder Scrolls 6 and then starting Fallout 5 development in 2026 or even 2028.

Watch the full interview below.