Bethesda’s games, such as parts of the Elder Scrolls series or most recently Starfield, are known, among other things, for not coming onto the market fully optimized. A studio employee now explains why this is so.
Which developer is it about? Bruce Nesmith has held key positions on some of Bethesda’s biggest titles. He made a significant contribution to The Elder Scrolls in particular. While he already worked as a designer on Daggerfall and invented quests on Oblivion, he even took on the role of lead designer on Skyrim.
Nesmith is well versed in the processes involved in developing such a large and complex game. That’s why he knows what stumbling blocks there can be to the release. According to him, even the games he’s been a part of are far from perfect – especially when they’re released.
The “Shattered Space” expansion for Starfield was released on September 30, 2024 and is considered by some to be Bethesda’s best DLC. Here you can see the trailer.
Starfield shows its first story expansion, Shattered Space, in the launch trailer
More videos
Autoplay
More fine-tuning would be possible
What does Bruce Nesmith say? In an interview with Videogamer, he talks about the final phase of development, when the actual game is finished and quality testing is still being carried out. They are supposed to ensure that a title like Starfield comes onto the market as error-free as possible – even if the studio’s history suggests otherwise.
“I’ll be the first to say that Bethesda’s games could be more sophisticated,” Nesmith said in the interview. Even when it is released, there are still bugs that cause anger in the community. But Nesmith also explains that Bethesda’s games are so extensive that a “certain lack of sophistication could be forgiven.”
Why aren’t the games perfect? Although more time and money could be invested in fixing existing errors, Nesmith says there is no such thing as complete perfection. This would only make the games “better”, but not flawless. In addition, a release would have to be postponed for months. Whether it’s worth it is questionable.
According to the developer, the fans’ expectations cannot be met anyway:
Players expect the game to be error-free and have no bugs. That is their expectation. You don’t have to like it, but it’s there. And you won’t achieve it. So what marketing needs to do is say how can we get as close to that expectation as possible? How can we make these people not hate us for what is wrong, but love us for what is right?
Burce Nesmith via Videogamer
For these reasons, a game ends up appearing with some errors. Whether the players really forgive the developers probably varies from case to case. While some bugs provide funny moments in the game, others can lead to bigger problems. Former Bethesda marketing chief Pete Hines has his own opinion on the matter: Boss explains why bugs are part of Starfield: You ‘accept the chaos’