Real Reason Todd Howard Won’t Let Unreal Engine 5 Power The Elder Scrolls 6

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Real Reason Todd Howard Won’t Let Unreal Engine 5 Power The Elder Scrolls 6

As we keep waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6, the questions regarding the game keep piling up. One of the most debated questions that we’ve seen is whether Todd Howard and Bethesda should switch from their own Creation Engine 2 to Unreal Engine 5. There are a lot of pros and cons for the switch, but it won’t happen because of one simple reason.

Despite all the demands from fans and the benefits that Unreal Engine has, the team at Bethesda is standing firm. Because it’s not just about better graphics and technology, it’s about the investment that the company has put into Creation Engine 2 and the fact that the devs already know it to a tee.

Todd Howard and Bethesda will stick to Creation Engine 2

Todd Howard and the team at Bethesda have made it clear that Creation Engine 2 is more than just an upgrade; it’s a full overhaul designed specifically for the types of massive, systemic RPGs Bethesda is known for. As we know, it was initially developed for Starfield and could now be the foundation for The Elder Scrolls 6.

Starfield modders with some tweaks to the ini files have managed to make Starfield look insane, really showing off just how much the Creation Engine 2 can do when it’s let off the hook!

This is a glimpse of how The Elder Scrolls 6 might actually look:

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Todd Howard even described it as the “largest engine overhaul in Bethesda’s history,” back in 2020 when Bethesda’s parent company was acquired by

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. But that’s not why Unreal Engine 5 isn’t a good idea for The Elder Scrolls 6. Digital Foundry recently explained why using Unreal Engine 5 wouldn’t fix existing issues with Bethesda’s games, like world fragmentation, that are rooted in legacy systems like Gamebryo.

The company has invested a lot in Creation Engine 2, not just in money, but in time and talent. Todd Howard himself said in 2023 that the work on Creation Engine 2 “took so long to do.” Walking away from that now would not only mean throwing out years of R&D, but also starting from scratch to rebuild Bethesda’s complex gameplay systems in a new engine.

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Former Skyrim and Starfield designer Bruce Nesmith has said that the engine has been meticulously refined to suit Bethesda’s unique brand of immersive, reactive open-world games. According to him, Creation Engine 2 is “perfectly tuned” for what the studio aims to achieve (via

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), and switching to Unreal just wouldn’t be worth it.

Other devs have switched over, but it doesn’t make sense for Bethesda

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The Witcher 4 will be built on Unreal Engine 5. | Image Credit: CD Projekt Red

Many developers in the industry, like 343 Industries and CD Projekt RED, have started using Unreal Engine 5, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Nesmith pointed out that plenty of mediocre games have used Unreal—it’s not a magic bullet. “The engine is in service to the game,” he said. “Is the game good? I don’t care what the engine is.” And in the end, that really is what matters.

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6 in 2018, and with development still ongoing in 2025, the studio clearly isn’t rushing. Sticking with Creation Engine 2 has allowed them to maintain their proven formula and way of doing things without needing to switch engines.

Unreal Engine 5 may look more impressive at first, and there are tons of fan-made videos and actually released games that have shown it. But for Bethesda, for The Elder Scrolls 6, it just isn’t the right fit. The studio has bet on the Creation Engine 2, and we won’t know if it pays off until the game comes out.

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