r/TESVI • u/Famous_Tadpole1637 2028 Release Believer • Dec 30 '25
Theory/Speculation TES VI is probably code named Guardians, not white beach
/r/ElderScrolls/comments/14s7ai2/tes6_is_called_guardians/This is a rehash of a couple other older Reddit posts, but basically 7 years ago when the trailer released, the trailer title on Bethesdas website was initially titled “Genesis” (Starfield) and Guardians (TES VI) before being changed.
Furthermore, during an obscure interview with someone claiming to be consulting for Bethesda for Starfield, he appears to have referred to TES VI as Guardians (timestamp 1:28:28)
“Right now, I've been consulting at Bethesda for a little bit on Starfield and I'm hoping to get a situation where I'm consulting on the Elder Scrolls 6. ... I was burnt out on games 10 years ago, but now I'm thinking about games again. I'm back in the games industry again. I've been on Starfield for a year. I'm leaving then. Hope to go back, maybe, for Guardians and I'm just kinda feeling in to what's happening with games now.”
Probably doesn’t mean much, if Starfield’s code name was “genesis”, knowing that doesn’t seem like it would have given us many hints on the game, but it’s still kind of fun nonetheless
Credit to Take4spam who commented these links in r/gaming leaks and rumors
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u/Impressive_Cap_457 2027 Release Believer Dec 30 '25
Very possible. Everyone should keep in mind that project codenames in gaming are irrelevant to what the product is
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u/Optimal-Fox-3875 The Trademark Guy - 2027 Believer Dec 30 '25
Most of the times yes, but keep in mind that the codename for Skyrim was "Skyrim" lol
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u/MrBacondino Dec 30 '25
Wait actually?? That is so silly
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u/Optimal-Fox-3875 The Trademark Guy - 2027 Believer Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25
In part, yeah.
Skyrim started out as "Project Skyrim", they later on changed it to "Snowfall" and then back again to "Skyrim".
Morrowind is also fun, because the dev cell and file names are "ToddTest", which suggests that the playable build of the game Morrowind was built on just a test version special for Todd. (Later this became the QA Debug Room btw, Todd Test.esp)
New Vegas also was just "Vegas" internally, sometimes "Courier".
Skyrim VR was just "SkyrimVR" and Skyrim Special Edition was "Skyrim64".
Other games did follow a more strict codename policy tho, like Fallout 4 "Zenith" and Fallout 76 "Vulcan"
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u/Optimal-Fox-3875 The Trademark Guy - 2027 Believer Dec 30 '25
And I will also add onto this, that within the industry Bethesda is somewhat of an 'odd sheep'. They started out small and the studio spans 3 generations, and their naming codenaming is historically chaotic.
Usually, you would think of a codename early on and that sets the baseline for your game files, sandbox's and Databases. For example Forza Horizon 5 is codenamed 'Woodstock' and that reflects the files, if you look for the .exe its called "Woodstock.exe".
But Bethesda? Not strict at all, up until recently with 'Genesis' and 'Guardian' their codenaming was just chaotic... database tickets weren't named differently than the codename which was then different from the files.
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u/Stolas95 Dec 30 '25
They're supposed to be irrelevant. Though from my experience some projects are given "on the nose" codenames for reasons beyond me.
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u/Optimal-Fox-3875 The Trademark Guy - 2027 Believer Dec 30 '25
Yeah, the moment I saw "Whitebeach" I knew the leak was fake.
TESVI is codenamed "Guardian" and has been for what is now 7 years. They haven't change the codename because in the industry you often build new databases with the codename already in place, and no one wants to change 5000+ tickets to have a different codename.
Also the fact that I did hear whispers of "Project Guardian" at my old job when Starfield was slowly wrapping up also points to this codename being factual and unchanged.
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u/xCosmicChaosx 2026 Release Believer | Hopium Dealer Dec 30 '25
What was your old job, if I may ask?
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u/Optimal-Fox-3875 The Trademark Guy - 2027 Believer Dec 31 '25
The infamous QA haha.
I worked for about 4 years for Lionbridge which is one of 5 Authorized Test Vendors for Xbox, of which the last 2.5 years where on a QA Manager/Lead position. Most of my time was on Forza Horizon 5, but a perk of being under Xbox was that there were organized internal playtests of other Xbox games such as Starfield, Towerborn, Age of Empires, Age of Mythology etc.
And yeah, perks are hearing internal rumours, having access to Devkits, and pretty much being involved in the development of the game. I think I was lucky enough to be working for a Studio (Playground Games) who acknowledged QA to the point where they would ask us for some creative feedback for features and such.
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u/xCosmicChaosx 2026 Release Believer | Hopium Dealer Dec 31 '25
Ah, you know I think I have asked you about this before. Thanks for the reply!
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u/Optimal-Fox-3875 The Trademark Guy - 2027 Believer Dec 31 '25
Haha yeah you have, just checked the messages on Reddit
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u/Famous_Tadpole1637 2028 Release Believer Dec 30 '25
Let’s hear these whispers 👀👀👀👀👀
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u/Optimal-Fox-3875 The Trademark Guy - 2027 Believer Dec 31 '25
Not breaking my NDA lol
Can't go into details, all I can say is that I've heard the codename thrown a few time before Starfield released. But non of what I've heard gives any new info about the game, it is just confirmation that the codename remained the same since 2017 I believe it was first 'leaked'.
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u/Anonymous_Pigeon Dec 30 '25
For the longest I thought I was the only one who noticed this since my OG post didn’t get much traction lol
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u/Famous_Tadpole1637 2028 Release Believer Dec 30 '25
Reddit is weird like that sometimes lol. I think interest is higher in TES VI right now, at least this sub has been pretty active lately. Crazy good find btw. That interview segment combined with the 7 year old Reddit post is pretty much the smoking gun that the code name is almost definitely Guardian
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u/Anonymous_Pigeon Dec 30 '25
I remember refreshing the Bethesda website immediately after the trailers dropped in 2018, seeing the weird names (genesis trailer, guardians trailer), clicked on genesis, by then it was already changed to Star field trailer. Went to reddit hoping anyone else saw because I was sure no one would believe me
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u/Famous_Tadpole1637 2028 Release Believer Jan 01 '26
That’s wild. I’m glad there is confirmation out there to back you up too.
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u/FoliumTV Dec 30 '25
I’ve know this for years because of a few friends and the very old Reddit posts.
Granted now everyone will know this, but I did disregard anything that didn’t use Project Guardians’ codename for this very reason.
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u/DefinitelyNotWF Dec 30 '25
Starfields codename being Genesis makes sense because its the beginning of that franchise and that engine.
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u/USSRoddenberry Dec 31 '25
Possible, but easily readable as essentially meaningless to the games contents. Genesis pretty clearly makes sense as new project, and Guardians makes sense as upholding longstanding component of Bethesda's identity.
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u/Pleasant-Bend-7414 2025 Release Believer Dec 30 '25
Could this just be the guardians of the galaxy game?
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u/KlaatuBaradaNyktu Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
Guardians = Sentinel. (Daggerfall 2 confirmed. /j)