While many will cry themselves hoarse over the directions Bethesda has taken over the past few years, whether it’s re-releasing The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch or bringing Fallout 4, Skyrim and DOOM into virtual reality, such complaints won’t affect how the company does things.
Bethesda PR and marketing in-charge Pete Hines said that the publisher is aware of its fanbase and all the criticisms and complaints that come with it. However, he asserted to GamesRadar that these wouldn’t define what Bethesda does.
“We’re aware of it, but we’re not going to let it define what we do. Ultimately, we’re going to try and do the things that we think are the best for the games that we’re making, because that’s, honestly, all I can really control.”
Hines recalls speaking to Todd Howard, director of Fallout 4 and Skyrim, several years ago at E3. “I went to Todd a couple of E3s ago and said ‘everybody’s going to ask us about The Elder Scrolls 6. You have to help me, you have to help me come out and say what the studio’s path is, and when The Elder Scrolls 6 is coming, to try and manage expectations’.”
He then stated that even as fans want The Elder Scrolls 6 and don’t like having Skyrim VR or DOOM VFR, the development teams at Bethesda “aren’t just a vending machine where you press for the soda and they just go back and forth – they want to be able to stretch their legs creatively, or try a new idea, or do something different and not just fall into the same pattern.”
Using Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn as an example, Hines noted that, “I think you see a lot of developers do that, and quite honestly, if we didn’t have folks break from it then you don’t get Horizon Zero Dawn. Like, how unbelievable is that game? And if [Guerrilla] just stayed on that path for what they were known for, you’d never get that game. I think that’s true of a lot of studios, right? You don’t get The Last of Us if [Naughty Dog] just kept churning out Uncharted games.”
Of course, there are various other projects that Bethesda has in the works that we’re not aware of and probably won’t find out about until they’re ready. But given how Fallout 4 launched in 2015 and Skyrim first launched in 2011, it’s obvious that fans will be craving what’s next, especially given the advancements that other open world developers seem to be making.
What are your thoughts on Hines’ views though? Let us know in the comments below.