Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout 4 developer Bethesda has quietly released a new Elder Scrolls game.
This is not Elder Scrolls VI, which isn’t expected to see the light of day for a few more years, but a mobile phone game.
It’s called The Elder Scrolls: Castles and has been released on Android, as spotted on Reddit. It does not appear to be live in the UK just yet, but could well be by the time you read this.
The game has been launched in “early access” according to the app description, suggesting this is a soft launch, hence the lack of fanfare.
The Elder Scrolls: Castles “puts you in control of your very own castle and dynasty”.
You also “create heroes, equip them with epic gear, and send them to battle against classic Elder Scrolls foes to collect valuable items”, according to the game’s app store page.
Keen mobile gamers will note one of the screenshots looks strongly reminiscent of Fallout Shelter, a mobile title launched in 2015 to support the release of Fallout 4.
The two games appear to share some of the same dynamics. You have to balance the types of rooms in your castle, to ensure you have the right resources flowing in.
One of your goals is to keep the residents of your castle happy, so they don’t “plot assassination” of the ruler.
The game is free to download and play, while its Google Play store page suggests The Elder Scrolls: Castles was first published on September 27. So far, it has racked up “1000+” downloads from the store.
There’s no sign of this one appearing on the iOS App Store just yet. But you can be sure it will in time.
Spiritual predecessor Fallout Shelter was released just a few months before Fallout 4 back in 2015, but the latest indications suggest The Elder Scrolls 6 won’t be out until at least 2026.
This was suggested in court documents revealed as part of Microsoft’s tangle with the US’s FTC, in which it aims to acquire publisher Activision Blizzard, as reported by The Verge.
In more current news, Bethesda announced Starfield had already been played by 10 million people on September 20, just a couple of weeks after its full release.
