The Elder Scrolls 6 Forgot the Magic That Made Skyrim Legendary

Big RPGs usually mean big teams, but that may not be a good thing. A former Bethesda designer just made a pretty compelling case that the secret sauce behind Skyrim wasn’t tech or marketing — it was how small and tight the team was. And if you look at where The Elder Scrolls 6 is reportedly headed, that magic might be tough to recapture.

Skyrim worked because the team was small, focused, and fast

Kurt Kuhlmann, who worked on Bethesda’s earlier Elder Scrolls games and Skyrim, told the KIWI TALKZ podcast on YouTube that the game’s real strength was a lean crew — roughly 100 to 120 people. With a group that size, communication stayed direct, changes happened quickly, and everyone pulled toward the same vision instead of fighting for their own slice.

He also pointed out the obvious-but-easy-to-ignore reality: once teams balloon, decision-making slows down. Ideas start getting stuck in approval loops, and the sharper edges of design intent can get sanded off.

TES6 is reportedly massive — and that brings baggage

While Skyrim thrived on that small-team energy, The Elder Scrolls 6 is said to be in the hands of a much larger crew — reportedly close to 500 people. On paper, more people should mean more game. In practice, it often means managing morale with endless meetings and brainstorming sessions, keeping departments aligned, and hoping innovation doesn’t evaporate in the process. The risk isn’t hypothetical: when your org chart gets that big, it’s harder to keep one cohesive vision marching forward.

• Skyrim’s sweet spot: about 100–120 developers, fast communication, unified direction, flexible changes.
• Big-team headaches: slower decisions, more approvals, vision drift, plus the constant effort to keep hundreds of folks motivated and aligned.
• The looming number: TES6 is reportedly approaching 500 developers — great for scale, tricky for coherence.
• The creative risk: a bigger game on paper can still miss the soul that made Skyrim feel so immersive.
• Recent example: Starfield had ambition and headcount, but its exploration loop turned repetitive, the world felt disjointed, and the final package came off like separate features stitched together rather than a single living universe.

Starfield is the cautionary tale

Bethesda’s last swing with a larger team didn’t exactly quiet the skeptics. Starfield had potential for days. What we got was a lot of content, but not a lot of cohesion — repetitive exploration, a world that never fully gelled, and a game that felt assembled from isolated parts instead of built as one continuous experience. The takeaway Kuhlmann points to is simple: if the creative spark is missing, throwing more people at the problem won’t save it.

So, can TES6 out-create Skyrim?

Talent isn’t the issue here — Bethesda has plenty. The question is whether a bigger machine can still protect a clear, player-first vision without drowning it in process. If The Elder Scrolls 6 ends up massive but shapeless, we’ll know why. If it lands with the same focus and immersion that made Skyrim timeless, that’ll be one hell of an organizational win.

Curious where you land: do you think TES6 can top Skyrim creatively, or are we looking at too many cooks for one kitchen?