Starfield Would Be Praised More If Made by Another Team, Says Former Bethesda Dev
Starfield is a good game, maybe even a very good one, but it is not quite the masterpiece some people expected. You may agree or disagree, but overall this seems to be the general feeling worldwide.
According to Bruce Nesmith, former Bethesda developer and lead designer on Skyrim, the reason is not the real quality of the game. Instead, it comes down to one name on the box: Bethesda Game Studios. If another team had made Starfield, the public reaction would likely have been much more positive.
What the Former Bethesda Developer Said About Starfield
Speaking with Press Box PR, the Bethesda veteran explained that his former studio suffers heavily from extremely high expectations. He believes this is one of the main reasons why Starfield did not receive universal praise from critics and players.
“Bethesda’s in the bad position of having expectations being so high they cannot be met,” said Nesmith.
“Managing expectations is the number one thing a good marketing department has to do. Let’s take a look at Starfield. Let’s assume that a new studio had put out Starfield. I suspect it would be talked about like the second coming. But because it was released by Bethesda, the expectations were so much higher that it was seen differently. Starfield is a good game. It’s a very good game. It’s just not the game that people expected it to be.”
Nesmith left Bethesda roughly halfway through Starfield’s development, so he experienced the final product in the same way as players did. He also added: “I played that game all the way to the bitter end and I have thoughts and I have concerns but I played it to the bitter end and therefore that’s a win for Bethesda.”
While he is not fully convinced by the final result, Nesmith believes a sequel could reach a much higher level. With a follow-up, the team would be able to refine and improve what was built in the first game, instead of creating so many systems from scratch.
