Bethesda’s Pete Hines announces retirement

Stop for a second and picture your favorite video game developer or publisher. It doesn’t matter their “scale” as long as they’re prominent. More than likely, you can name-drop at least one or two people who are the “faces” of that company. For example, Nintendo has Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Doug Bowser, etc. Microsoft has Phil Spencer, Sony has/had Jim Ryan, and on it goes. For Bethesda, they have/had many people who have helped define them over the years for one reason or another. Easily, the one that most people know is Todd Howard. He’s the guy who honestly makes the biggest announcements for the company and helps crank out their best games.

Just a couple of weeks after finishing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is making some changes to its Xbox studio structure. In an internal memo acquired by The Verge, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is being promoted to president of game content and studios, a role that will put him in charge of ZeniMax and its subsidiary studios, including Bethesda Softworks.

Microsoft has announced a reorganisation of its Xbox leadership team, bringing closer integration with Bethesda and parent company ZeniMax.

Former Skyrim lead designer Bruce Nesmith left Bethesda, and his updated role as senior systems designer, partway through Starfield's development, so he was as surprised as the rest of us when the massive space RPG was released in remarkably good condition. 

Liked Starfield? Hated Starfield? You probably have Todd Howard to thank. A recent chat between MinnMax and Skyrim lead designer Bruce Nesmith shed some light on Bethesda's structure and organisation, and it sure sounds like pretty much every choice the company makes needs Howard's stamp of approval before it can go ahead, even as it's grown bigger over the years. To be fair to Howard, though, it seems like that's in spite of his own wishes.

Many “balances” go on in the video game space that are meant to protect all involved while also giving players the best games possible. Sadly, as we all know by now, not all of those balances work out. For example, video game developers often do “crunch” to try and rush a game out versus delaying it, which causes many problems. You might have heard of a game featuring King Kong that was a disaster because the team was forced to complete it in one year. Then, there’s the Elder Scrolls 6 announcement that people still make fun of today.

Bethesda's former design director thinks The Elder Scrolls 6 will keep The Elder Scroll 5: Skyrim's levelling up and progression system.

In a year with Microsoft launching Forza Motorsport, Hi-Fi Rush andStarfield, it’s crazy that Redfall also exists. Released in May 2023 to an overwhelmingly negative response, its player base is almost non-existent, even with the recent Title Update, which adds the long-awaited 60 FPS Performance Mode.

As Starfield developers begin to depart Bethesda after the release of the studio's massive RPG, some fans are despondently casting their minds forward to the eventual departure of studio lead Todd Howard.

Pete Hines isn’t the only major departure from Bethesda Softworks. Will Shen, lead quest designer and design director on Starfield, has also announced that he’s leaving the studio. He’ll join Something Weird Games, a studio of former talent from BioWare, Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment, to work on Wyrdsong, their debut RPG.

Long-time Bethesda staffer Pete Hines is departing the company after 24 years.

Pete Hines, Bethesda’s head of publishing, announced today he’s retiring and leaving the game company. The executive, who’s been with Bethesda since 1999, said that he feels the launch of Starfield marks an endpoint of his career, and that he plans to take “more time to enjoy life.”