Should The Elder Scrolls 6 Support Skyrim Save Files?

How many hundreds, if not thousands, of hours have you poured into Bethesda’s seminal The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim at this point? The game’s inherently addictive nature, mixed with Bethesda’s relentless re-releases for it across various systems, means that players have collectively spent more hours in the frozen wastelands of Skyrim than they do in most other game worlds.

At this point, most of you have resolved the Civil War, taken down Alduin and the dragon threat, joined the Thieves’ Guild, and the Companions, and the Dark Brotherhood, and the Mage’s College and Bard’s College, and probably married and settled down with kids, become Jarls of multiple holds, bought yourself multiple houses…

Basically, you’ve done a lot in Skyrim. You’ve accomplished a lot of it. Wouldn’t it be nice if, in some way or the other, The Elder Scrolls 6 acknowledged that? Now, to be clear, we know that each new Elder Scrolls game is an independent entry set hundreds of years after the previous one, and with a new protagonist each time- but still, wouldn’t it be nice if, for example, you managed to get some nice extra gear, or a cheaper house, or something, because the game acknowledged your save file from Skyrim? It would be a great way to acknowledge players who spent so much time in Skyrim without having to worry about elaborate continuity concerns that save file transfers usually induce, such as in Mass Effect or The Walking Dead.

It’s not a big deal if it doesn’t happen, of course- whatever The Elder Scrolls 6 is, it will be a new place in a new era, and it’s fine if we have to start over as a result. But with that said, it would be nice if there was a small nod to the fact that we, and countless other players across the world, lost ourselves in Bethesda’s previous fantasy masterpiece for hundreds of hours on end, in the new game.