That's why the team is sticking with the Creation Engine despite the criticism

In the past, Bethesda Game Studios has been repeatedly criticized for the fact that the team is sticking to the now outdated Creation Engine for its role-playing games. A decision that lead designer Bruce Nesmith explained in an interview.

Even if Bethesda Game Studios at “Starfield” relied on a completely revised version of the in-house Creation Engine, the science fiction role-playing game released in 2023 had to struggle with various technical deficiencies.

These include the many short loading times, the stiff NPCs and the game world that is perceived as not very coherent. Of course, the call to switch to a newer or more modern engine quickly became loud again. According to Bruce Nesmith, who served as lead designer on “Starfield” and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Despite everything, Bethesda Game Studios will continue to stick to the Creation Engine.

Especially since Nesmith doesn't see switching to a different graphics engine like Unreal Engine 5 as a panacea for solving technical problems.

The perfect engine for Bethesda games?

As Nesmith explained, the Creation Engine, which grew out of the Gamebryo Engine and is continually being refined, is the best engine for the type of role-playing games that Bethesda Game Studios develops.

Accordingly, titles like “Starfield”, “The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim” or “Fallout 4” playfully benefits from the freedom and flexibility that the Creation Engine offers.



At the same time, Nesmith pointed out that in the event of technical or gameplay deficiencies, one should blame the game itself and not the underlying engine. “We argue about the engine. But let’s argue about the game,” Nesmith continued. “The engine is not the point, the engine serves the game itself.”

“You and I could both identify a hundred crappy games that were based on Unreal. Is it Unreal's fault? No, it’s not Unreal’s fault.”

Switching to the Unreal Engine would be a costly undertaking

Another factor Nesmith says the team needs to consider would be the technical and financial effort involved in switching to a different engine. “Should they switch to Unreal Engine? “You have to do a cost-benefit analysis,” it continues.

“The cost of switching to Unreal would go toward all the initial development work that would be needed to try to integrate what you're already used to into Unreal.”



“It would take – I'll just give a number, which certainly doesn't correspond to the real number – one to two years of technical work to transfer it to the engine as it is. And then more work would be needed after that to adapt the engine, to adapt the game to work in it,” concluded Nesmith.

Bethesda Game Studios is currently working on the role-playing game, among other things “The Elder Scrolls 6”although it is still unclear for which platforms the RPG will be released. Due to developments surrounding Xbox's new strategic direction, unconfirmed reports suggest that PlayStation players could also be able to enjoy The Elder Scrolls 6.

Further news about Bethesda, Bethesda Softworks.



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