Starfield Dev May Have Just Dropped A Promising Elder Scrolls 6 Tease

One of Bethesda’s most senior ex-developers has outlined exactly where he thinks Starfield went wrong, and it’s (hopefully) a good indication of the direction that Bethesda plans to take The Elder Scrolls VI in.

Is Starfield a bad game? No. But is it in the same league as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? Also no.

Personally, I didn’t really enjoy my time with Starfield, but it’s fair to say that the expectations I had for a new Bethesda IP may have factored into that. It is by no stretch of the imagination a terrible game, yet the majority of players seemingly came away from it disappointed.

Obviously, where The Elder Scrolls VI is concerned, that’s not a great sign for things to come. Fans are concerned that Starfield’s direction may be indicative of a similar design philosophy, but a recent interview with the game’s systems designers implies that might not be the case.

Bruce Nesmith is a bit of an unsung hero as far as Bethesda games are concerned. Before leaving the company (sometime in 2022), he'd worked at Bethesda for a combined 25 years.

He's credited as a quest designer on Fallout 4, Fallout 3, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, as well as a lead designer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Essentially, if you love those games, Nesmith is at least partially to thank for their quality.

Starfield Shattered Space official image from Steam page, Bethesda

Nesmith left Bethesda sometime in either 2021 or 2022, but not before working on Starfield as a systems designer. In a recent interview with FRVR, Nesmith was quizzed on why exactly he thinks the game didn’t live up to the standard of other Bethesda titles, and he had some very interesting things to say about its reception.

“I think it’s a good game… I don’t think it’s in the same calibre as the other two, you know, Fallout or Skyrim, or Elder Scrolls rather, but I think it’s a good game,” Nesmith revealed.

“I worked on it, I’m proud of the work I did. I’m proud of the work that the people I knew did on it. I think they made a great game… If the same game had been released by not Bethesda, it would have been received differently.”

So, how does this all tie back to The Elder Scrolls VI? Nesmith specifically stated during the interview that a focus on “procedural generation” is partially to blame for Starfield’s less-than-stellar reception, noting that its combat suffered as a result.

“I was also disappointed when, pretty much, the only serious enemy you fought were people… there’s lots of cool alien creatures, but they’re like the wolves in Skyrim. They’re just there, they don’t contribute, you don’t have the variety of serious opponents that are story generators,” Nesmith continued.

Hopefully, this more than implies that Bethesda as a whole is aware of the misstep, and not just Nesmith himself.

Procedurally generated content, when implemented well, isn’t a bad thing, but it’s a common concern that The Elder Scrolls VI will go all-in on the concept in the same way Starfield does.

We’ll have to wait and see if that’s the case when the game releases… at some point. Your guess is as good as mine at this point.