Skyrim design lead says moving on from the fantasy RPG to sci-fi games like Fallout and Starfield was a "relief" that let Bethesda "exercise new creative muscles"

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Bruce Nesmith admits some Bethesda devs "weren't attracted" to Fallout or Starfield because "they wanted to work on fantasy titles"

Skyrim
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Former Bethesda dev Bruce Nesmith has revealed that there was some internal hesitation to move on from the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and onto more sci-fi-oriented territory like Starfield and Fallout, but ultimately the veteran RPG developer views the shift as a learning experience.

Talking to VideoGamer, Nesmith said it was a "relief" when Bethesda moved on to Fallout 4 after Skyrim and Starfield after Fallout as it allowed the developers to "exercise new creative muscles," although he remembered not everyone feeling the same enthusiasm.

"There are some people, admittedly, who weren’t attracted to Fallout or weren’t attracted to Starfield, who came to Bethesda simply because they wanted to work on fantasy titles," Nesmith said. "That’s going to be true everywhere, but Bethesda has always wanted to be a multi-title studio, and I think it’s a smart thing to do. I think it’s good for the people who work there. I think it’s good for the industry. I think it’s good for the consumers."

Nesmith also recently opened up about his working relationship with Todd Howard, who he said would sometimes work on "two dozen" projects at once and is the face of Bethesda partly because he's "incredibly photogenic".

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.