The Elder Scrolls Blades is coming in early 2019, in case you thought it still might hit "fall"

The Elder Scrolls Blades has been delayed, proving that It's the most wonderful time of the year for family, warm drinks, and games with vague release dates to sheepishly confirm they're not coming out yet. Bethesda said as recently as September that Blades would arrive in "fall", via an Apple Event stage presentation hosted by Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard, but the silence had been adding up since then.

Bethesda revealed on the series' official Twitter account that The Elder Scrolls Blades is now planned to hit mobile devices sometime in early 2019.

Read more

Elder Scrolls 6: release date, trailer, news, and everything else we know

If you haven't been following it, The Elder Scrolls Blades is a free-to-play, mobile-centric offshoot of the fantasy series that brought us Skyrim, Skyrim Special Edition, Skyrim VR, and The Elder Scrolls 1 through 4. Blades players use touch controls to explore dungeons and wilderness from the usual first-person perspective, while locked-in combat and town building elements bring in some more familiar mobile trappings. All that said, Bethesda noted when it first announced Blades that the game would also likely come to PC and consoles after arriving on iOS and Android.

The delay announcement makes no mention of those other versions, but it seems fair to assume that they're still in the cards (albeit even further out now than they were before). We got some hands-on time with Blades back at E3 2018 where we found it smooth to play and quite promising overall. Hopefully this delay is just to ensure an even better experience when it arrives - Akatosh knows Bethesda's confidence might be a bit shaken after launching Fallout 76.

While you wait, why not freshen up your play experience with some picks from our list of the best Skyrim mods? 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Latest in The Elder Scrolls
Skyrim
Skyrim is still an all-time great for asset reuse: this hunk of human flesh could be some poor guard's glute, or probably just a piece of repurposed beef
The Elder Scrolls 6
The Elder Scrolls 6 NPC auction raises $85,000 as mystery bidder snags the win from a dedicated group of RPG enthusiasts
Modder leading 13-year effort to remake Oblivion in Skyrim isn't worried about an official remake: "The fact Skyblivion is nearly in a releasable state is a miracle"
Elder Scrolls map
Former Skyrim animator says "gameplay is the most important thing" for The Elder Scrolls 6
Bethesda
Skyrim's foremost geographer uses weather stats to explain how it actually feels to live in each of the iconic RPG's cities
A screenshot of the trailer for the upcoming PC game, The Elder Scrolls 6.
The Elder Scrolls 6 sleuths use Starfield math to narrow down the Skyrim sequel's potential release window, and sorry folks, it's still looking like it's ages away
Latest in News
two aliens firing miniguns
4 years after shutting down, this dead sci-fi MMO is being brought back to life, but there's no word on its canceled TV show tie-in
Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix wants Daniel Craig to join the cast of Greta Gerwig's Narnia movie – but it's not certain if he'll take it
Nicole Kidman in The Perfect Couple
Nicole Kidman’s hit Netflix show could be returning for another season, but she won’t be coming back
Matt LeBlanc as Joey in Friends
21 years later, the Friends spin-off nobody asked for is streaming for free
Lilo and Stitch
New trailer for Disney’s live action Lilo and Stitch movie pulls a Sonic redesign, finally giving us the Stitch we have been waiting for
The Legend of Vox Machina
If you're craving more D&D after Baldur's Gate 3, Critical Role is "hard at work" on a video game – and it'll be unveiled "any day" now