Dev Left Bethesda During Starfield Development Because Studio Grew Too Large. „If I Didn't Do It Now, I Maybe Never Would”
One of the developers of Starfield left Bethesda in the middle of developing the game to start his own studio. Nate Purkeypile revealed that the main reason was the ever-growing team.
Nate Purkeypile is a former Bethesda employee who held the position of world and lighting designer on Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. For some time, he also worked on Starfield, but in 2021 he decided to leave the team to set up his own studio. He is currently developing a game called The Axis Unseen, the latest trailer of which he posted yesterday on Reddit. There he also talked a bit about his departure from Bethesda.
I know that many people have thoughts about Starfield and that it is probably too big and should be smaller etc. I agree with a lot of things, and while I loved working at Bethesda when we were around 65-110 people on Fallout 3 and Skyrim, I enjoyed it less and less as the team grew and grew.
Purkeypile reported that the number of developers has increased significantly during the development of Starfield. About 500 people and four different companies were involved in it, not to mention outsourcing. The creator simply didn't like this style of work.
I've always loved indie games and I've come to the conclusion that if I don't do it now, I might never do it.
It's worth reminding that at the beginning of the year, Will Shen, also a former employee of the company, spoke on the same topic. He stated that due to the overly large team, there were problems with its supervision, which in turn affected the quality of Starfield's ending.
Purkeypile's new work, The Axis Unseen, is an open-world action adventure game with elements of horror. The game will debut on PC in 2 weeks, i.e. on October 22. You can already check out its demo, from which you will be able to transfer your save game data to the full version.
