Former Bethesda dev Bruce Nesmith has revealed that there was some internal hesitation to move on from the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and onto more sci-fi-oriented territory like Starfield and Fallout, but ultimately the veteran RPG developer views the shift as a learning experience.
Talking to VideoGamer, Nesmith said it was a "relief" when Bethesda moved on to Fallout 4 after Skyrim and Starfield after Fallout as it allowed the developers to "exercise new creative muscles," although he remembered not everyone feeling the same enthusiasm.
"There are some people, admittedly, who weren’t attracted to Fallout or weren’t attracted to Starfield, who came to Bethesda simply because they wanted to work on fantasy titles," Nesmith said. "That’s going to be true everywhere, but Bethesda has always wanted to be a multi-title studio, and I think it’s a smart thing to do. I think it’s good for the people who work there. I think it’s good for the industry. I think it’s good for the consumers."
Of course, Bethesda Game Studios' next project is the long, long-awaited return to the fantasy realm with The Elder Scrolls 6. Nesmith retired from Bethesda in 2021, but he's been out and about lately talking about his time with the company, recently predicting that The Elder Scrolls 6 won't go back to "fiddly stat sheets" after the success of Baldur's Gate 3.
Nesmith also recently opened up about his working relationship with Todd Howard, who he said would sometimes work on "two dozen" projects at once and is the face of Bethesda partly because he's "incredibly photogenic".
Elder Scrolls 6 won't return to "fiddly stat sheets" due to Baldur's Gate 3's success, says Skyrim lead: "Through Skyrim, Bethesda has wanted to have the game get out of its own way"
"You're all making fun of it and yet you buy it": Skyrim and Oblivion vet on Bethesda's horse armor, and how the dev "didn’t know what the hell it was doing at the time"
