'Elder Scrolls 6' Test Footage Leaked: Is It Real Or Fake?

Alleged “Elder Scrolls 6” gameplay test footage has surfaced online, but fans are having doubts about its authenticity.

The nine-second clip, posted on Reddit under r/ElderScrolls, was allegedly taken from 4chan and shows what appears to be a test map for “Elder Scrolls 6’s” open world: rolling hills filled with grass, flowers and the odd boulder here and there. On the left side of the screen is string of numbers and a code displaying “ES-VIRF alpha test.”

According to Games Radar reporter Connor Sheridan, the manner in which this code was written indicates that the clip is fake.

Sheridan noted that Bethesda refers to “The Elder Scrolls” games in their test builds as “TES” and not just “ES.” He added that while “ES-VIRF” can indeed refer to “The Elder Scrolls VI: Redfall,” the omission of the T in the code is a big red flag.

It is possible that the clip is merely a random piece of terrain that a user made with free software like the Unreal Engine. The lighting and textures shown in the clip is of high quality, but it doesn’t reflect what Bethesda has already shown in the past.

In their “Celebrate 25 Years of Elder Scrolls” video, Bethesda gave fans a sneak peek into what the world of “The Elder Scrolls 6” will look like. One developer mentioned that they will be using photogrammetry to create hyper-realistic recreations of real-world terrain for the game.

The leaked video clip has been met with skepticism across the online community, with the Reddit post itself having gotten deleted by one of the subreddit’s moderators. Fake game test footage in today’s time is surprisingly easy to create considering the number of free resources that people can utilize.

Even the photogrammetry techniques that Bethesda is using can be recreated with the Unity engine as shown in the “Book of the Dead” demo, especially since this demo’s assets can be downloaded for free.

Even over two years after its announcement, “The Elder Scrolls 6” is still nowhere to be found. Bethesda has not provided much information about the game’s development, but it’s safe to assume that it is still under development.