Elder Scrolls 6 gameplay supposedly leaks but we're not convinced

Alleged Elder Scrolls 6 gameplay test footage is circulating online, but there's very good reason to believe it's not actually from Bethesda.

The video was posted on Reddit in connection with a "4chan leak". While the Elder Scrolls subreddit's moderators have since removed the post, you can still watch the 9-second video below and judge for yourself how authentic it looks. Beyond supposedly offering our first look at the next Elder Scrolls game running in-engine, there isn't much to the video - just a first-person view of running around on a grassy hill dotted with boulders, with more craggy foothills sprawling on the horizon.

Video taken from 4chan leak, could be map testing of Elder Scrolls 6 from r/ElderScrolls

The biggest strike against the video's authenticity - aside from this being the internet equivalent of something falling off the back of a truck - is the text on the side of the screen. The label reads "ES-VIRF alpha test", which would seemingly stand for "Elder Scrolls VI Redfall." Like many game studios, Bethesda uses codenames for in-development projects, so it's unlikely that it would put this kind of a title on a test video. Even if it did, Bethesda always abbreviates the series as TES, including "The" of "The Elder Scrolls" in the acronym.

In the past, the fact that this is early game footage of some kind would lend a little more credence to its supposed origin. However, today it would be relatively easy for someone to use a free game development tool like Unity or Unreal to create the source material for a video like this all on their own.

There's still the chance that it's legit; if so it's easily the most exciting video of virtual boulders we've ever seen. But given all those concerns, it's safer to assume this particular early look at Elder Scrolls 6 is a fake for the time being.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves - before the next Elder Scrolls, Bethesda still has to give us Starfield.