Where Starfield Went Wrong — And Why The Elder Scrolls 6 Won’t Make the Same Mistake
Former Starfield designer Bruce Nesmith, who left in 2021, says in a new FRVR interview that the realities of space exploration forced Bethesda to break from its Fallout and Elder Scrolls playbook.
One of the folks who actually worked on Starfield just said the quiet part out loud about why it didn’t land like Bethesda’s fantasy heavy-hitters. And no, it’s not because the studio forgot how to make open worlds.
Former Starfield designer says space isn’t the thrill you think it is
Bruce Nesmith, who left the Starfield team in 2021, broke down the problem in a new chat with FRVR. His core argument: the vision for a sprawling space epic was solid, but the realities of space (and how Bethesda builds its worlds) set the game up for some very specific hurdles.
"I’m an enormous space fan, I’m an amateur astronomer, I’m up on all that stuff, a lot of the work I did on Starfield was on the astronomical data, but space is inherently boring. It’s literally described as nothingness. So moving throughout that isn’t where the excitement is, in my opinion."
Blunt, sure, but he’s not taking a drive-by shot. Nesmith worked on Starfield’s astronomical data, so he’s speaking as someone who lives for this stuff. His point is basically: traversing gigantic pockets of nothing doesn’t generate the same kind of instant intrigue you get from stumbling into a spooky cave in Skyrim or a raider-infested factory in Fallout. If the journey between the good bits isn’t interesting, the loop starts to feel like a loop.
The loop that wore thin
According to Nesmith, Bethesda’s overall approach was right in spirit, but their tried-and-true open-world formula demanded enormous time and resources in a setting that doesn’t naturally reward constant exploration the same way. The end result, for a lot of players, was a rhythm that boiled down to: land on a planet, do the objective, hop to the next one, repeat.
- Starfield leaned heavily on procedural generation, spreading content across hundreds of planets. That scale came with a cost: lots of empty stretches and familiar-looking outposts.
- Space travel itself often felt like moving through a whole lot of nothing, which undercut the sense of discovery.
- The game lacked big, memorable NPCs or standout enemies tied to the main story; a lot of the characters you meet just felt... present.
- Visually, the game is striking, but it didn’t have the same handcrafted fantasy charm or dense, story-forward design that defines Bethesda’s best work.
- Bethesda’s vision was sound, but executing that vision across a galaxy ate time and effort, and the repetition showed.
Why The Elder Scrolls 6 probably won’t make the same mistakes
The safe bet is that TES 6 will go back to the studio’s sweet spot: a grounded fantasy world that can be meticulously hand-built. That’s where Bethesda’s creativity sings, and it’s a lot easier to give players a clear identity to latch onto from minute one.
There’s also the response to Starfield. The launch buzz was underwhelming compared to Bethesda’s past milestones, and that kind of feedback leaves a mark. With time to reflect, you’d expect the team to double down on what they do best, in a setting that supports it. The Elder Scrolls 6 has a built-in identity; Starfield spent a lot of its energy trying to define one.
Of course, we won’t actually know how it all shakes out until TES 6 shows up. But if Nesmith’s read on Starfield is right, the next trip to Tamriel is set up to benefit from those hard lessons.
What do you make of Nesmith’s take? Brutally honest or overly harsh? I’m curious where you land.