Skyrim designer Bruce Nesmith has said that Bethesda Game Studios should be looking at the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 to inform design decisions on future RPGs.
Nesmith, who designed Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and some of Starfield, left Bethesda in 2021. Prior to his work at the studio, Nesmith worked on official Dungeons and Dragons adventure books during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, and has expressed his love of Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3.
In a recent interview, Nesmith said that Bethesda should look at the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and what it accomplishes for the development of The Elder Scrolls 6 and future titles, including the currently-in-pre-production Fallout 5.
The longtime RPG designer explained that Bethesda needs to have “the world be more dynamic”. While Oblvion and Skyrim were fantastically dynamic worlds for their time, titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 have shown what increased interactivity can do in modern titles, and Bethesda should catch up.
“Bethesda games in the last decade have become less dynamic in order to meet the needs of what the games needed and audience expectations,” the Skyrim designer said, “but to be able to have the world be more fluid, I think that would be very cool.”
Nesmith told Bethesda “to look at Baldur’s Gate 3 and draw lessons from that smash hit”, citing that the reason behind its popularity is that players felt like they had an impact on the game. “Part of what made it so popular is that it felt like all choices were meaningful because you made a choice and it made a big difference in your play.”
Bethesda games did use to have this level of choice. In Morrowind, you could kill off a main character and completely lock yourself off from that quest line, and opting to follow one faction should stop you from being able to do some activities with another. In Starfield, a game that Nesmith does admittedly think is very good, those types of choices are simply non-existent.
“Bethesda games have maybe pulled back from doing [those meaningful choices] a little bit,” he continued. “The focus is on putting your toys away but in these games you do something in the thieves guild quest line that completely changes what becomes of the mages guild, for example. The world and the game is changed because of your choices. Have it make a real impact.”
Nesmith concluded that “the gaming community has spoken and they want games like Baldur’s Gate 3 where their actions feel like they have impact”. Of course, Nesmith is no longer at Bethesda and has not spoken on whether or not The Elder Scrolls 6 is looking into that style of game-changing choices.
However, as a longtime Bethesda fan, that’s what Bethesda games used to be known for. There’s a reason why Morrowind fans are still such huge defenders of the game as it gives players considerably more choice over games like Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Starfield.
The Elder Scrolls 6 currently does not have a release date, but the game isn’t expected to launch this year. Bethesda Game Studios head Todd Howard has confirmed that the game will not launch before GTA 6, essentially confirming a 2027 release date at the earliest.
