Should Bethesda change its way of working? Former Starfield developer thinks so

Starfield was a disaster. Like it or not, its launch was an unparalleled festival of bugs. And that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that it didn’t even resonate with the audience in the way one would expect from a Bethesda game. It was liked. It sold well. It worked among critics. But it wasn’t a runaway success like Fallout or Skyrim: it was simply a game that performed well, in a discreet manner. In other words, it was a disaster by Bethesda’s standards. And this is something that could have been avoided, according to a former developer of the studio.

According to Nate Purkeypile, an artist who worked at Bethesda for many years and who has now given an interview to Kiwi Talkz for the release of his game The Axis Unseen, one of the reasons for Starfield’s failure is the use of its internal engine, the Creation Engine. An engine that is not only outdated but also extremely difficult to use.

In Purkeypile’s words, the reason he has been able to release his game in just three years is because Unreal Engine 5 is a tool that has allowed him to automate many of the most laborious development processes. Something impossible with Creation Engine. And if he had used the engine they used at Bethesda, he would have spent hundreds more hours just polishing details. This makes him think that Bethesda should change their graphics engine if they want to thrive again in the future.

Is Unreal Engine the Future of Bethesda?

Defining working with Creation Engine as “being on a train while laying down the tracks… while both are on fire,” he has also admitted that transitioning from one engine to another involves a lot of work. But it’s worth it. In the same interview, he points out how other large studios, like CD Projekt, have done it recently due to having similar problems with their games, referencing the disaster that was the launch of Cyberpunk 2077.

Will Bethesda stop using the Creation Engine? Only time will tell. Although we are inclined to say no, we also didn’t think CD Projekt would make the jump to Unreal Engine. So, we’ll see if they end up listening to Purkeypile or not. And with which engine they release their next game, which should be the next Fallout.