Bethesda May Have Hidden The Elder Scrolls 6's True Title in Starfield Years Ago

As fans continue to speculate about potential subtitles for The Elder Scrolls 6 based on the number of asterisks in Xbox boss Asha Sharma's tweet, a new theory has emerged suggesting Bethesda actually teased the real name in Starfield years ago—and it's quite convincing.

As we reported yesterday, The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel has become the frontrunner for the game's title. However, it turns out Bethesda might have dropped a hint about Sentinel in the Starfield character creation screen back in 2023.

Community members have pointed out that the character ID number on that screen spells out 'Sentinel' perfectly when you split the numbers into pairs and convert them to letters using their alphabet positions.

"This title was right under our noses for more than three years and we somehow missed it," one fan commented.

Indeed, there are old posts highlighting this Starfield Sentinel Easter egg from three years ago, but they never gained much traction. This coincidence alone makes Sentinel seem like a done deal—the odds of that ID number randomly spelling out Sentinel are extremely unlikely. Additionally, former Bethesda developer Michael Kirkbride replied "yep" to a Reddit post suggesting Sentinel as the title. This feels like a foregone conclusion.

For context, Sentinel is a major coastal capital city of the Redguards, located in the northwestern hills of Hammerfell—a region some believe is the setting for The Elder Scrolls 6. Speculation is already swirling about what this means for the game's environments. Some fans are even wondering if Sentinel could indicate a dual-province game, including both Hammerfell and High Rock. And just for fun, some are trying to map out locations for The Elder Scrolls 7 and 8!

Alternatively, this could all be meaningless. The eight asterisks might not correspond to the title's character count, and the Starfield ID number could simply be a coincidence. But at this point, I'm pretty convinced The Elder Scrolls 6 is indeed called Sentinel. Or maybe it's Skyrim 2.

The problem is, we might have to wait years for confirmation. The Elder Scrolls 6 is reportedly at least two years away from launch, despite being announced a sobering eight years ago. So there's plenty of time for theorists to drive themselves even crazier trying to figure this out.

Meanwhile, Bethesda staff inflated a giant rat outside the company's offices during Sharma's visit to play The Elder Scrolls 6, protesting the mass layoffs Xbox suffered last month. Current and former Bethesda staff told IGN that Microsoft's devastating layoffs would have a "substantial and cascading effect" on The Elder Scrolls 6's development, though Bethesda has denied this.

Job losses across Bethesda Game Studios locations included "key, high-performing people in the trenches" working on the long-awaited Skyrim successor, impacting morale and raising the risk of future development crunch and delays, we were told.