Todd Howard prefers to 'start over' with each Elder Scrolls game
Todd Howard often returns to the drawing board when Bethesda makes a new Elder Scrolls game. That tendency feels particularly evident given the long wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 and with Skyrim's 15th anniversary approaching this year. Howard says it's an important part of the studio's philosophy when revisiting its most notable franchises.
"When we go to do an Elder Scrolls game," Howard tells Game Informer in a tangent during a Fallout interview, "I do kind of like to start over, so you look back across the franchise and say, 'Okay, what's important? How do you sort of file away the age? Like, okay, what's underneath that?
Why do certain game mechanics… how do they make you feel, as opposed to the actual mechanic? What are the unique things about the world?'" He frames the process as more than swapping mechanics: it’s about finding what underpins those systems and how they shape player experience rather than focusing only on technical features.