Skyrim Veteran Alleges Howard Prioritized Starfield Over TES 6: “It Was Clear We Were Shifting to a Space Game”
Skyrim hit the shelves in 2011, and Fallout 4 followed suit four years later. Given that timeline, it’s not far-fetched to think we could have seen The Elder Scrolls 6 by 2019. So, what held it back? Kurt Kuhlmann, co-lead designer of Skyrim, reveals that Bethesda Game Studios was sidetracked by other projects.
First up was the online multiplayer title Fallout 76, followed by the ambitious sci-fi RPG Starfield. Kuhlmann suggests that Starfield was more of a personal passion project for creative director Todd Howard rather than a collective priority for the studio.
“[Fallout 76] wasn’t initially meant to involve our entire studio,” Kuhlmann shared. “But what we were supposed to be working on next—it wasn’t like we were gearing up to dive into TES 6, even though that’s what most fans were hoping for.”
He noted that Howard advocated for Starfield to be the studio’s next major release, successfully getting approval from the Zenimax board. Kuhlmann expressed that he “would’ve much rather been working on TES 6 instead of [Fallout] 76 and Starfield, personally. I think that sentiment was shared by most of the studio. That’s what everyone wanted to do, you know?”
He elaborated, “It wasn’t like Starfield was this big internal push where everyone was excited to make a space game. It was more like, ‘Guess what, team? We’re making a space game.’”
Kuhlmann’s insights are significant, given his two-decade tenure at Bethesda before his departure in 2023, which was marked by a contentious split after he was passed over for the lead designer role on The Elder Scrolls 6. He also highlighted challenges during Starfield’s development and a growing bureaucracy at Bethesda that he felt contributed to the studio’s issues.
After a long wait, however, TES 6 is finally the next title on Bethesda’s agenda. Howard has stated that it’s the studio’s top priority following a summer of layoffs and restructuring at Xbox. While there’s no specific release date yet, it seems reasonable to expect it before the decade wraps up. Right?
