Former Bethesda veteran criticizes the current state of affairs at the company and Todd Howard personally

Ex-Bethesda Veteran Criticizes Current State of Affairs at the Company and Todd Howard Personally

Kurt Kuhlmann finally left Bethesda in 2023 after more than 20 years of work. He participated in the creation of practically all of the company's hits starting from 2003. Plus, he was the co-lead developer of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

Apparently, Todd Howard was so impressed with his colleague that he promised him the position of game director for the sixth part of The Elder Scrolls. That game, by the way, was supposed to be the company's next project after Fallout 4. But instead, it focused on Fallout 76 and Starfield. And both, as is known, turned out to be failures compared to other Bethesda creations. Moreover, after 11 years of waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6, Kuhlmann was "passed over" for the game director position.

In short, as you've probably already guessed, personal resentment towards Howard became one of the main reasons for Kuhlmann's departure. But there were others. According to him, the atmosphere in the company changed a lot after the success of Skyrim. And not for the better. In particular, many lead designers, including Todd, over time began to manage the process less and less, preferring "bureaucracy." Moreover, these problems began long before the merger with Microsoft.

By the way, Kuhlmann described his version of The Elder Scrolls 6 as "something like 'The Empire Strikes Back'."