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- Former Bethesda Developers say Starfield was a result of limited creative freedom.
- Games like Fallout and Skyrim had a lot of creative room therefore they were hits.
- The primary reason is that as the Bethesda team grew bigger, the freedom became less.
Starfield was supposed to be the next big thing for Xbox this generation. Unfortunately, despite massive marketing and promotions, the game couldn’t take off as it was mostly quite generic, with a not-so-interesting story, and weak overall gameplay.
A former Bethesda developer has revealed that the reason Starfield isn’t as good as some of the studio’s previous projects is because it was made with limited creative freedom, as the team expanded in size.
Why it matters: Starfield didn’t sit well with the fans, as most reviews pointed out that it was boring and not anything new, despite the hype surrounding it being so massive.
Talking to PCGamer, former Bethesda developer, Nate Purkeypile, talked about his experience at Bethesda Softworks. He said he loved working at the company when the team was smaller, but as it grew, he enjoyed the work less.
A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having that freedom to do what you want, as opposed to a game with this whole ‘checklist design’ and ‘design by committee
– Nate Purkeypile
He said the change made Bethesda a lot more strict and rigid, which took the creative freedom away from the developers. This wasn’t the case with Skyrim or Fallout 3, as the developers were allowed to experiment more.
Interestingly, one of the major gripes with Starfield was that it felt bland. The narrative headed nowhere, and the companions weren’t interesting either. In contrast, all these things were excellent with older Bethesda games.
Nonetheless, the studio still says that Starfield was a great release, and even compares it to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It isn’t giving up on it either, as the developers are working on a lot more content for the title, releasing this year.
What are your thoughts on Starfield lacking creative freedom in its development? Let us know your opinions in the comments or join the discussion at the official Tech4Gamers Forum.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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