“When he wasn’t around, games suffered”: Ex-Bethesda Developer Just Revealed the Real Reason Why Starfield Tanked and The Elder Scrolls 6 Might Too

Bethesda has had some struggles with Starfield, which is not a secret. Fans have debated endlessly about design choices, scope, and expectations, but we now have a new perspective from one of the studio’s most influential veterans. And it adds a far more human explanation.

Former Elder Scrolls writer and lore master Kurt Kuhlmann speaks on why he left Bethesda:

▫️ Elder Scrolls 6 was supposed to be their next game after Fallout 4
▫️ Todd Howard had promised him the lead design role on TES6, only to find out 11 years later that they went with… pic.twitter.com/TL56IJv8QX

— KAMI (@Okami13_) January 17, 2026

Kurt Kuhlmann, Bethesda’s longtime Elder Scrolls “loremaster” and co-lead designer on Skyrim, has finally spoken in detail about why he left the studio in 2023. Kuhlmann describes a studio that lost creative cohesion, particularly when Todd Howard wasn’t directly involved in day-to-day decisions.

After more than two decades shaping Tamriel’s lore and systems, Kuhlmann describes a studio that grew so large it lost the creative cohesion that once defined its biggest successes—particularly when Todd Howard wasn’t directly involved in day-to-day decisions.

How Bethesda’s Growth Led to Starfield’s Biggest Problems

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Kurt Kuhlmann described Bethesda’s transformation as gradual but deeply impactful. According to him, the studio made decisions quickly and collaboratively in its earlier days.

Todd Howard and the core team worked closely, discussing design choices together and actively making the games themselves. Kuhlmann says that this changed dramatically as Bethesda grew into a multi-studio operation with developers spread across locations, especially by the time Starfield entered full production.

By 2023, Starfield was in development at four major studios, with layers of management separating developers from decision-makers. According to Kuhlmann, this led to “communication breakdowns.” Different teams would get conflicting directions from leadership depending on which studio they spoke to.

Todd’s a very good project lead and fundamentally I think he’s a designer at heart, and he’s good at it… [but] over time as he got busier and every part of this larger and larger organisation wanted him to do stuff for their project… he would get pulled away.

As for Todd Howard, he was still a project lead, but his growing responsibilities alongside the studio meant he simply couldn’t be everywhere at once. When Howard wasn’t directly involved, Kuhlmann says, projects suffered.

Decisions made in his absence often had to be reversed later, which cost time and interrupted the workflow. In his words, Howard’s involvement was so central that when he wasn’t around, “games suffered.”

A Broken Promise and What It Means for The Elder Scrolls 6

The second reason for Kuhlmann’s departure was far more personal and directly tied to The Elder Scrolls 6. After Skyrim, Todd Howard verbally promised Kuhlmann the lead design role on the next mainline Elder Scrolls game. At the time, the plan was for TES6 to follow Fallout 4.

Instead, Bethesda pivoted to Fallout 76, then committed to the massive, years-long development of Starfield. From Kuhlmann’s perspective, that promise turned into an eleven-year wait. When TES6 was finally starting development, he was told he would not be leading it after all.

Bethesda offered him another “important role,” but it wasn’t the one he had been preparing for over a decade. Kuhlmann spoke about the conversation and called it difficult, and noted that what ended up being decided was different from what he wanted and what the studio wanted from him.

Kuhlmann has no bitterness about the outcome and even admits that, given how massive The Elder Scrolls 6 has become, he might not have enjoyed leading it.

But what do you think that might’ve looked like? Let us know in the comments!

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