Bethesda's top-down Starfield pivot pushed Elder Scrolls VI to 17 years past Skyrim
Summary
Kurt Kuhlmann, Skyrim co-lead and 27-year Bethesda veteran who left in 2023, expected Elder Scrolls VI directly after Fallout 4.
Todd Howard unilaterally redirected the studio to Starfield, a new IP no one internally requested.
Elder Scrolls VI, announced in 2018 and now targeted for no earlier than 2028, arrives 17 years after Skyrim.
"It was very much: guess what, team? We're making this space game"
01
Howard set the Starfield direction without an internal mandate
Kuhlmann says the studio's default expectation was Elder Scrolls VI directly after Fallout 4.
Howard set the next title alone: "No, we're doing Starfield. I got that approved. It's going to be a new IP." - Kurt Kuhlmann.
"It wasn't like Starfield was this big internal like, 'Hey, we all want to make this space game, Todd.'"
Kuhlmann preferred building Elder Scrolls VI over Fallout 76 and Starfield, and says most of the studio agreed.
02
Resource strain was building before Starfield began
Fallout 76 pulled in the whole studio despite not originally being planned that way.
Fallout 76 crunch drove heavy turnover as overworked staff left the project.
VR ports of Fallout 4 and Skyrim plus a Skyrim special edition spread the studio across four projects.
Starfield interrupted a decade-long rhythm of alternating Elder Scrolls and Fallout releases.
03
The new IP failed to justify the detour
Starfield earned roughly 8/10 critic scores but soured with players.
Steam reviews turned negative, undercutting Howard's "greatest space RPG ever made" ambition.
Players called it bland and repetitive versus Bethesda's prior RPGs.
04
Bethesda now signals a return to franchise-centric design
Howard says of Elder Scrolls VI: "We're coming back to that classic style that we've missed." - Todd Howard.
Xbox says Elder Scrolls VI is progressing well but at least two years out.
The confirmed next move is a full return to the franchise deferred in 2018.
What this means
For Publishers & Developers: Top-down IP pivots without team buy-in carry pipeline and retention costs, as Bethesda's turnover shows.
For Investors & VC: A studio's proven franchise cadence is a diligence asset; disrupting it delayed a flagship title by 17 years.
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