Starfield: “games of an irresponsible size”, the boss of Bethesda explains why their video games are so huge

Game news Starfield: “games of an irresponsible size”, the boss of Bethesda explains why their video games are so huge

Bigger and bigger universes

The open world and Bethesda are a love affair that has lasted for decades now and we can even say that the company has made it its spearhead. The Elder Scrolls saga is a good example, Oblivion and Skyrim having notably broken the codes and raised society to the top; Likewise, Fallout also offers meticulous open worlds, a true Bethesda trademark.

Then, of course, there is Starfield, a new IP released last year which pushed all the cursors to the maximum with more than 1000 planets and a hundred star systems to explore. It’s gargantuan, perhaps even too much for some players, and it’s also very difficult to fill and animate. A huge challenge for developers which Todd Howard returned to.

Authentic games

It seems like nothing, we owe a lot to Todd Howard: his breakthrough within Bethesda is quite astonishing and we owe him a huge part of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series. Although he is also criticized, the publisher owes him a lot and, moreover, we advise you to take a look at our JV Legends, covering his career like no other.

In short, very recently, the producer (also director on Starfield, therefore) conducted an interview with the BAFTAs: he spoke about his role within Bethesda and the way he and the company make open-world games.

My job on games often involves being the director, much like a movie director where you bring together all the elements of the art, the cinematography, the technology that our engineers build to bring these worlds to life.

And obviously there’s all the writing, quest design, and level designer. There are so many elements to our games that I’m in a really unique position, working with so many incredible people, and then having to bring it all together.

In fact, we cut very little content from our games at Bethesda. This is why our titles are so irresponsibly large.

Of course, this will continue to fuel the debate: does “bigger” really mean “better”? How gigantic will The Elder Scrolls VI be… and isn’t that simply dangerous for the final quality of the adventure?

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