Bethesda may come under fire after The Elder Scrolls 6 launch. „If you put out a game that people don't like, the internet is going to treat you like you're clubbing baby seals”
According to a Skyrim developer, Bethesda may face harassment no matter how good The Elder Scrolls 6 turns out to be.
As a company involved in creating high-budget games, Bethesda must reckon with harsh criticism from the community. However, according to its former developer, Nate Purkeypile, it is directly exposed to harassment from fans.
Purkeypile attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC), where he offered his insights on the industry and disclosed the reasons behind his decision to depart from Bethesda.
In the discussion, the developer pointed out that online harassment of Starfield creators has become almost unavoidable. No matter how good the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI turns out to be, there will still be negative voices aimed at this game and its creators.
Even if The Elder Scrolls 6 is great, I'm sure there's gonna be these hour-long YouTube videos [and] death threats yet again. If you put out a game that people don't like, the internet is going to treat you like you're clubbing baby seals.
Recently the head of Hazelight studio, Josef Fares, defended Electronic Arts against player accusations, and Ubisoft is said to have hired lawyers to protect developers from online harassment. So the problem is broad and not just about Bethesda.
Let's go back, however, to Purkeypile and his presentation at GDC. He also touched on another interesting issue - his departure from working on AAA titles and Bethesda (which took place in 2021), where he worked for 14 years. At that time, the developer was involved in the creation of three games, which were awarded Game of the Year titles. These are: Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Fallout 4.
Fallout 3 did ok, but Skyrim was something else, completely different. And eventually, three of the games I worked on – Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Fallout 4 – won the most GotY awards for the year that they came out. [...] I really didn't feel the need to take on another big AAA project [...].
The main reason for Purkeypile's career change was the pursuit of new challenges. In 2021 he established his own independent studio, Just Purkey Games, which a few months ago released the adventure action game The Axis Unseen.
