It's the question everyone has been asking for the past month since Microsoft acquired Bethesda: "Will The Elder Scrolls 6 end up releasing on platforms outside of Xbox?" Well, now the most notable face attached to the franchise has spoken up, and it's hard to know exactly what he thinks will end up being true once the next installment releases.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard was obviously asked about Bethesda's upcoming move to Xbox Game Studios and in the process, the status of the developer's games appearing solely on Xbox platforms was mentioned. Howard mirrored Phil Spencer's previous statement that Bethesda titles may come to other platforms on a "case-by-case basis" but also acknowledged that there have always been exclusivity deals of some sort between the two parties. "If you look at every Elder Scrolls game, there has been some exclusivity on Xbox or with Microsoft. We've partnered with every game. Morrowind was basically a console exclusive, Oblivion was a long timed exclusive, Skyrim's DLC was exclusive for a long period of time. We'll decide what makes the best sense for our audience when the time comes, and I can't really project today what that looks like," Howard said.

It was then mentioned that the idea of The Elder Scrolls 6 coming only to Xbox platforms (including PC) would be a bit surprising, especially given that Skyrim has essentially landed on every platform over the year. On this note, Howard simply said, "I would agree that is hard to imagine."

It's hard to know exactly what Howard means by this final line, as there could be multiple ways to interpret it. One interpretation could see him meaning that the thought of Elder Scrolls 6 coming solely to Microsoft devices is hard to imagine because, hey, that's not something that is being planned for. The other way to infer this statement could be to take it quite literally; the thought of the game coming solely to Xbox and PC is somewhat hard to believe given how widely-available Skyrim was.

The more honest answer in the midst of all of these questions though is likely that Howard and the team at Bethesda just truly don't know what will become of The Elder Scrolls 6 in terms of the platforms it will release upon. Given that the title is still so far out, and Bethesda Game Studios is prioritizing Starfield at the moment, the fate of TES6 isn't written in stone whatsoever. In fact, I'd just be personally happy if the game arrived in any manner prior to 2024.

We'll surely learn more about The Elder Scrolls 6 in the coming years, but for now, it's probably best for your own sanity that you don't ask too many questions about what will become of the game considering Howard himself likely doesn't have all of the answers.