Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said this week she watched a live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls 6 and came away calling the game’s story “even greater” than its scale, offering one of the most detailed reactions yet from a Microsoft executive.

Sharma made the comments on social media on August 11, describing the session as a rare look inside Bethesda Game Studios’ work on the long-awaited role-playing game, according to GamesRadar and GameRant.

She called the scope of the game “incredible” but stopped short of confirming plot details, setting or a release window, keeping with Bethesda’s practice of saying almost nothing concrete about the project since it was first announced in 2018.

Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard has said The Elder Scrolls 6 remains the studio’s top priority, with development now built on Creation Engine 3, the same shared technology platform powering the studio’s other upcoming titles, Variety reported.

Microsoft laid off staff across several of its subsidiary game studios in July, and Bethesda Game Studios saw some positions cut as part of that round. Todd Howard’s team has said the layoffs did not significantly change the internal schedule for The Elder Scrolls 6, though the company has not detailed how many Bethesda employees were affected.

Separately, a rumor claiming Bethesda was secretly working on another unannounced Elder Scrolls spinoff was debunked this week, according to Push Square, closing off one of the more persistent pieces of speculation circulating among fans this summer.

The game remains without a confirmed release date, platform list or setting, seven years after its initial teaser trailer. A 2024 court document connected to the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard antitrust case had described the game as “expected 2026 or later,” though that filing predates this week’s comments and was not a firm release commitment from Microsoft.

Bethesda has not said when it plans to show the game publicly for the first time.