Bethesda is working on a new game engine to power its upcoming next-gen games, The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield, and now Todd Howard has teased just how significant the update to the engine may be.

He said during a recent event (via GI.biz) that the overhaul to the engine is "probably the largest we've ever had, maybe even larger than Morrowind to Oblivion." To help with this, Bethesda is heavily investing in the team behind it; Howard said there are more people at Bethesda working on the engine "by a factor of five" than ever before.

The new Bethesda game engine is likely to retain some of the things people know and love about the studio's games, including support for mods and the general approach to open-ended worlds, Howard suggested. However, outside of that, fans can expect major changes.