Skyrim Lead Designer Warns Rushed Fallout and Elder Scrolls Games Could Disappoint Fans

BRUCE NESMITH, former lead designer of Skyrim, has cautioned that speeding up development on new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games could ultimately harm their quality and leave fans disappointed. In a recent interview, Nesmith emphasized that large-scale RPGs require a careful balance between time, resources, and quality, and that rushing production rarely ends well for players or developers.

Nesmith explained a core principle in software development: studios can only control two out of three factors — resources, time, and quality — at any given moment. "There's an adage in software development about the process having three corners: resources, time and quality. The studio decides two of them, which determines the third. If you lock down the resources and the schedule, that decides the quality you will achieve," Nesmith said. He stressed that attempts to shorten development cycles without significantly expanding teams often result in less polish, cut content, or technical issues.

Modern AAA studios already operate with massive teams and budgets. Nesmith pointed out that Starfield, for example, was developed by a core team of around 500 people with a budget estimated between $200 and $400 million. However, simply adding more people or money doesn't guarantee a faster or better game — project management becomes more complex and new challenges can arise.

He believes the biggest risk of rushing schedules is a drop in quality, fewer features, and more bugs.

One possible solution, according to Nesmith, is to hand development to another studio if a trustworthy and experienced partner can be found. However, he cautioned that not just any team should be given control of such major franchises.

Nesmith also noted that giving a franchise time to "lie fallow" can be beneficial, as too frequent releases risk burning out the fanbase. Still, waiting too long between releases can also be problematic. He suggested that an optimal gap between major entries is about three years.

These comments come amid reports that Microsoft would like to speed up the release of new Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout games. Currently, The Elder Scrolls VI is in pre-production at Bethesda Game Studios.

Do you agree that pushing for faster Fallout and Elder Scrolls releases could harm quality and disappoint the fanbase?