Bethesda veteran Pete Hines left the Elder Scrolls and Fallout studio in 2023 after more than 24 years with the company. He's now retired, and in a recent interview, Hines talked about leaving Bethesda and had some harsh words for what the company has become today. To be sure, Hines did not say Microsoft one time in the interview, and did not single out any specific person or event in his comments.
Speaking to Kirk McKeand for his Firezide Chat series, Hines said one of the reasons he decided to retire in 2023 was because he came to realize he "could not spend the rest of my life doing something that wasn't for me."
"I was staying there because this place still needs me. I just hit a point of, 'Yes, it needs me, and I am powerless to do what I think needs to be done to run this place properly, to protect these people, to maintain what we worked so hard to create, which is an incredibly efficient, well-run video game developer and publisher,'" he said.
Hines went on to say he had a front-row seat to witnessing Bethesda "getting damaged and broken apart and frankly mistreated" or "abused," he said. "I said, 'I am not going to sit here and watch this happen right in front of me.'"
"This is not when I wanted it to end or how I wanted it to end, but that's not really up to me. And at a certain point, truthfully, my mental health was so deplorable that I just said, 'I cannot,'" Hines explained.
Hines went on to say he couldn't actually leave when he wanted to because he wanted to see Starfield out the door, but it kept getting delayed ahead of its eventual September 2023 release.
"I was waiting until after Starfield. I knew I was leaving the year before. Every time Todd delayed Starfield, I thought, 'f**k, I'm here another eight months,'" he said. "And Todd was the only one who knew. It's another reason I love that man. He showed up for me when I was just at my wit's end and got me through that, and got me out of there in a way that I still retained my sanity."
Also in the interview Hines said the "worst f**king part" about his job was seeing how Bethesda declined compared to what it once was.
"It was to join a place that I genuinely was a fan of and people there I genuinely held in high regard and esteem, and then to get there and see how it actually worked," he said. "To talk is something, right? But I'm very much about what is the follow up to that? Do you mean what you say? Or are you just saying shit that sounds good and then as soon as you leave this room that's completely forgotten?"
Hines admitted that Bethesda was guilty of not delivering everything it said it would, but the company was always trying to be "genuine and authentic." Things are different today, as Hines sees them.
"Truthfully, I still think Bethesda is just part of something that is not authentic and is not genuine. And that shouldn't be a surprise to you," he said.
This line in particular--about being "just a part of something..."--is being linked to Microsoft because Bethesda is now a division of Microsoft. Microsoft announced its purchase of Bethesda owner ZeniMax in 2020. Prior to this, Bethesda had been under ZeniMax for decades.
Bethesda has a number of high-profile upcoming projects, perhaps the biggest of which is The Elder Scrolls 6. After that will come Fallout 5. The studio is also continuing to collaborate with Prime Video on the Fallout TV show, which is coming back for a third season.
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Speaking to Kirk McKeand for his Firezide Chat series, Hines said one of the reasons he decided to retire in 2023 was because he came to realize he "could not spend the rest of my life doing something that wasn't for me."
"I was staying there because this place still needs me. I just hit a point of, 'Yes, it needs me, and I am powerless to do what I think needs to be done to run this place properly, to protect these people, to maintain what we worked so hard to create, which is an incredibly efficient, well-run video game developer and publisher,'" he said.
Hines went on to say he had a front-row seat to witnessing Bethesda "getting damaged and broken apart and frankly mistreated" or "abused," he said. "I said, 'I am not going to sit here and watch this happen right in front of me.'"
"This is not when I wanted it to end or how I wanted it to end, but that's not really up to me. And at a certain point, truthfully, my mental health was so deplorable that I just said, 'I cannot,'" Hines explained.
Hines went on to say he couldn't actually leave when he wanted to because he wanted to see Starfield out the door, but it kept getting delayed ahead of its eventual September 2023 release.
"I was waiting until after Starfield. I knew I was leaving the year before. Every time Todd delayed Starfield, I thought, 'f**k, I'm here another eight months,'" he said. "And Todd was the only one who knew. It's another reason I love that man. He showed up for me when I was just at my wit's end and got me through that, and got me out of there in a way that I still retained my sanity."
Also in the interview Hines said the "worst f**king part" about his job was seeing how Bethesda declined compared to what it once was.
"It was to join a place that I genuinely was a fan of and people there I genuinely held in high regard and esteem, and then to get there and see how it actually worked," he said. "To talk is something, right? But I'm very much about what is the follow up to that? Do you mean what you say? Or are you just saying shit that sounds good and then as soon as you leave this room that's completely forgotten?"
Hines admitted that Bethesda was guilty of not delivering everything it said it would, but the company was always trying to be "genuine and authentic." Things are different today, as Hines sees them.
"Truthfully, I still think Bethesda is just part of something that is not authentic and is not genuine. And that shouldn't be a surprise to you," he said.
This line in particular--about being "just a part of something..."--is being linked to Microsoft because Bethesda is now a division of Microsoft. Microsoft announced its purchase of Bethesda owner ZeniMax in 2020. Prior to this, Bethesda had been under ZeniMax for decades.
Bethesda has a number of high-profile upcoming projects, perhaps the biggest of which is The Elder Scrolls 6. After that will come Fallout 5. The studio is also continuing to collaborate with Prime Video on the Fallout TV show, which is coming back for a third season.
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