Ex-Bethesda Dev Says Starfield Was Held Back As The Team Wasn’t Large Enough

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Starfield Needed More Manpower!

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  • Former Bethesda lead Kurt Kuhlmann has said Starfield was not built around the studio’s biggest strengths.
  • He believes the game’s scale demanded more manpower than Bethesda had at the time.
  • As per the developer, the game was still impressive in many ways due to these circumstances.

Starfield has been updated constantly since its release, and the game has certainly improved quite a bit. However, the RPG’s initial reception wasn’t the greatest, especially compared to past Bethesda releases.

A former Bethesda developer recently explained that the team originally hoped to make The Elder Scrolls 6 before Starfield. Explaining further, he also states that the team should’ve been larger for a new IP like Starfield.

Why it matters: At release, Starfield was riddled with various problems, including loading screens, multiple bugs, etc. Many still think the RPG is mediocre.

Starfield
Starfield Has Improved Since Release Quite A Bit

Speaker to FRVR, former Bethesda designer Kurt Kuhlmann suggested that Starfield was held back because Bethesda aimed for a project that was bigger than what its team could comfortably handle.

Kuhlmann said Starfield “was not leaning to our strengths,” pointing to the RPG’s massive scope and Bethesda’s relatively limited team size compared to the scale of the project. According to the developer, something as simple as animating a creature was taking two to three times longer in Starfield.

He also explained that games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim benefited from past work, but the team had to make almost everything from scratch for Starfield. This created multiple hurdles for the studio.

For Fallout 4 to Starfield, almost everything had to be created from scratch. 

Starfield
Starfield Launched In 2023

The ex-Bethesda developer noted that the game turned out quite well in various regards in spite of these limitations.

What do you think about the former Bethesda developer’s comments on Starfield? Share in the comments below.

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