Skyrim Developer Says Bethesda MUST CHANGE!

[@threatmaker]

even if bethesda had a ground breaking absolutely perfect game engine that would allow literally anything to be implemented in to a game, it wouldnt make a difference if the gameplay, story, characters etc. arent good. and we all know what to expect from current bethesda regarding those

[@AVVGaming1]

@@threatmaker absolutely spot on! I’ve made many videos on that including their writing, game design etc. it’s been such a letdown and shattered space was the lowest they’ve been.

[@rofo2107]

Bethesda is Boeing of the game industry. Games are designed by clowns, supervised by monkeys. The only correction is bankruptcy.

[@jaredrobinson7071]

It has nothing to do with the engine. Modders have fixed pretty much everything in the creation engine. The problem is a lack of passion and an abundance of arrogance. Bethesda does not have the passion to go back and fix their engine properly, and they are so arrogant they think we will keep buying sub par games that they don't care to actually work on. If you get rid of creation engine you literally get rid of everything that makes a bethesda game a bethesda game. It won't work in my opinion, It'll be just another fantasy UE game it WON'T be ES6 is they switch.

[@BlueFusion2910]

@@jaredrobinson7071 exactly, they should make a whole new Creation engine version, not switch to Unreal

[@AVVGaming1]

I feel like if they go with unreal they lose a lot of uniqueness to them. It may have quirks but it’ll lose them what makes them different. But, they need to sort it out. They cannot have thousands of loading screens, they have to find a fix for that! They can’t be the only AAA game on the market with that.

[@TheCephalus]

""It has nothing to do with the engine. Modders have fixed pretty much everything in the Creation Engine."" While modders have done extraordinary work improving Bethesda's games, their fixes are often surface-level or workarounds rather than solutions to underlying problems. For example, issues with multi-threading, memory management, and modern hardware utilization are deeply embedded in the engine's architecture. These are not things modders can "fix" without access to the engine's source code or massive rewrites-efforts far beyond what Bethesda itself seems willing or able to do. ""The problem is a lack of passion and an abundance of arrogance. Bethesda does not have the passion to go back and fix their engine properly..."" This view oversimplifies a complex issue. It’s not about passion or arrogance-it’s about the limitations of tools. The Creation Engine has been iterated on since the Gamebryo days (Morrowind), and while Bethesda has made upgrades, it's like trying to modernize an old car. At some point, you’re better off designing something new instead of patching the old framework. Moving to a better engine isn’t a sign of laziness; it’s a sign of recognizing when better tools are needed to create better products. ""If you get rid of the Creation Engine, you literally get rid of everything that makes a Bethesda game a Bethesda game."" This is a common misconception. A game engine is just a tool-it’s not what defines the soul of a game. Bethesda games are beloved for their open-world exploration, systemic gameplay, and player-driven stories, not for the technical quirks of their engine. Moving to a more modern engine doesn’t mean losing these defining elements-it means enabling them to be implemented in a way that performs better, looks better, and has fewer technical limitations. For example, using a modern engine like Unreal or a fully revamped in-house engine could allow for: More dynamic NPC interactions through advanced AI systems. Fewer bugs and crashes, thanks to better debugging tools and modern frameworks. Improved graphics and performance on current-gen hardware. Smoother modding support with modern pipelines and tools. The tool doesn’t create the game-Bethesda does. Better tools just help them craft their vision more effectively. ""It won’t work in my opinion, it'll be just another fantasy UE game. It WON’T be ES6 if they switch."" Unreal Engine or any other modern engine wouldn’t make Elder Scrolls VI a generic fantasy game, just as it didn’t make The Witcher 3 or Jedi: Survivor generic. The engine provides a framework for developers to build upon-it’s Bethesda’s unique vision, design choices, and world-building that define what their games are. A good engine should fade into the background, allowing the design and creativity to shine. Think of it this way: a carpenter doesn’t define their craft by the tools they use. A master craftsman with better tools can create a more polished, intricate, and enduring product. In the same way, Bethesda’s move to a modern engine could give them the flexibility to elevate the core aspects of what makes an Elder Scrolls game special without being held back by the technical debt of the Creation Engine. In fact, clinging to an old engine for tradition’s sake would risk stagnation. It’s not the quirks of the Creation Engine that make Bethesda games great-it’s Bethesda. A new engine wouldn’t destroy what we love about their games; it would ensure their legacy continues to evolve and thrive.

[@jaredrobinson7071]

@@TheCephalus That's nice but I disagree. Wither 3 and star wars were generic for me. Removing the ability to move every item in a game WOULD for me take away the soul of a bethesda game, and if Bethesda had passion they would go back and fix their engine. See they HAVE access to their own source code they just don't care enough to go back and do the work. Bethesda would literally have to start NOT knowing how to build a game AT ALL if they start with unreal cause it's not what they use.

[@Lord.alucarD]

They don't just THINK that people will buy subpar games, people already do and will continue to. Zero standards.

[@StiffAftermath]

Starfield. Is it the game engine or the game design that people have real issue with? I think they need to stop relying on procedural system and start making hand-crafted content to overcome the limitation of the engine. Character animations for example. Global topographical object population. Etc..

[@AVVGaming1]

Agreed! Those procedural generated grid where not what I was looking for. I want Each location to be different, each dungeon I go into to be at least 1% different in some way to another. I really don’t like the concept Of “the game never ends”. It always sacrificed quality for quantity

[@BlueFusion2910]

Unreal Engine? No, its saturated the game market too much, and is never adequately optimized. I like my games 60fps and above, thank you

[@AVVGaming1]

Do you think they should stick with their current engine or rebuild it? Do you think it’s just down to writing / game design, or the problem is related to the engine?

[@BlueFusion2910]

@AVVGaming1 they should fix storywriting and game design too, probably fire Emil Pagialuro. but they should also properly update/rebuild Creation Engine too, without switching to Unreal.

[@AVVGaming1]

@ I’ve done videos on Emil and his writing. Don’t even get me started. It’d be easier to fix the engine than fix him lol I think they need to really go back and fix everything. Maybe starfield was the wake up call? Maybe they expected people to be fine with things like loading screens etc and only after the game released they realised that people are more upset now than they were in 2011.

[@sparhawk1228]

Starfield's optimisation on PC is pretty bad. What's the difference? Atleast with UE5, sure somewhat bad perfomance. But atleast you will get all the perks. Less loading screens etc.

[@cherifgrib]

​@AVVGaming1 they need id software developer wizards unreal engine is awful

[@Lomi311]

Most people who play a game are never going to mod it. I have so many mods on Skyrim and FO4, but I fell in love with Bethesda playing Oblivion on an Xbox 360, and no mod has made those other games as fun as that first experience. If TES6 doesn’t feel modern, polished, and fun in its vanilla release form, it’s doomed. That said, I’ll mod the crap out of it and probably enjoy it for years, but that won’t make the series financially viable. They need to start over.

[@AVVGaming1]

I’ve played Skyrim about 100 times and not used mods a lot of times. I played it in VR, on the switch and neither of those had that option. But I still replayed it. Because of the adventure of it all! The beautiful open world, the unique dungeons, the quests and the atmosphere. On the other hand, starfield released a bunch of mods but I haven’t been excited to try them. Proves your point!

[@roydavid5761]

UE won’t have the secret sauce, creation engine allows dropping a sword somewhere and coming back a 100 hours later and find it lying there where you left it. CE can be fixed, they just don’t want to for some reason. Take a look at the many mods made by the community that put the baseline engine to shame.

[@christiangray7826]

I think Bethesda should never have “supported” modding in the way that they did. They initially made modders sell the mods, and took 75% of the revenue. Then, after that failed miserably, they made the “creation club”, but now they charge a flat rate to create a mod. Modding in almost every other game and gaming community is NOT monetized in any way. I think that is a better way of handling modding as a whole.

[@Andre-tc9sb]

I don't think the problem is the engine. I think bethesda is just very, very lazy. Looking at starfield footage, i can see that much of the animations, are taken directly from fo4, and not changed in any way. Modders have made far, far better animations for fo4, using bethesda's same tools. Take the ADS with scopes, for example. It's just a black screen with a scope drawn in. What is this? 2004? how is this in any way acceptable? and it has nothing to do with the engine. Modders have made see through 2d and 3d scope mods, a long time ago for fo4. It's clear that what bethesda does and what the engine can actually handle, are two different things.

[@christiangray7826]

Bethesda in the last year and a half/two years has said “it’s too hard to make an enjoyable game, people should just lower their standards and have fun playing games that aren’t fun”

[@ryleehagen5543]

Hot take: any engine can look as good as UE5, however, UE5 itself has so many big issues, like with the lighting system, using DLSS as a crutch, lack of uniqueness between games. Everybody keeps saying that everybody should switch to UE5 but honestly, I think that would be a net negative for the gaming industry.

[@madmantheepic7278]

I don’t even think that’s a hot take, anyone who’s touched game dev would know that tbh. But because it’s one of those “industry standard” bs that devs have to work with that bloated mess

[@danielbetancur1250]

"The engine is suited for the kinds of games Bethesda makes." Yeah that's the problem 😂

[@AVVGaming1]

Hahahaa that’s funny! 🤣

[@GoalOrientedLifting]

remove the engine and youll never have what 90% of their fans want from their games. engine isnt the issue. its the developers and managers.

[@kazielbonn]

Going from Morrowind to Oblivion and then lastly to Skyrim, I felt that Skyrim was already at the limit of their in-house engine and they needed to move on. Then I saw the release of the Fallout games and knew then that they were going to stick to the old no matter what. EDIT: Sorry I didn't write this properly as I was bedridden with a fever. What I meant to say is that Oblivion to me, was already showing the limits but Skyrim surprised me with its beauty and man did they nail the dragons. However, the floaty movement and clunky combat were still the same. That's when I realised that maybe the limit had been reached and it was time to move on. Morrowind was revolutionary for me in all aspects and for me personally, still remains the pinnacle of the TES franchise. Oblivion was too "vanilla" for lack of a better term. Skyrim did much better and deserved a much better movement and combat feel, but accepted that it's a tech limitation. Over the years since though I've seen other games come out with better solutions and just hoped the next Bethesda game would improve on the things mentioned above. Fallouts and Starfield, though I haven't played either, still look floaty and clunky. I still hope that TES VI will have fixed all that with or without a new engine. It would be great to be wandering the Alik'r desert and then fighting giant scorpions and every strike feels grounded in realistic physics. I imagine dust particles thrown into the air from every block, dodge and strike. That's the dream.

[@AVVGaming1]

I know they are definitely not ones to make changes. They stick to what they know. But they have to come up with a solution. The competition is growing all the time. They can’t be the only game with that many loading screens. I’m not sure what they should or will do, but my money would be on sticking with the usual no matter what lol

[@soapkill2028]

I have a question how did it feel limited like we're you unable to do something you wanted to do. we're you mad they didn't have flight in oblivion. I mean you have to tell is actually why you felt limited I mean the biggest modding community's in the world are based off those engines that doesnt exactly scream limited.

[@5226-p1e]

@AVVGaming1 to be frank they did upgrade some things in the creation engine for fallout 4 and 76, it just didn't feel like a good enough jump, and it's the same with starfield, it was an upgrade, but it didn't really feel like much of an upgrade. want to know what's sad, bethesda knew how to make hidden load screens for FO4, but for whatever reason they simply chose not to put any of them in starfield, probably due to laziness and for the fact that they launched the game incomplete and launched it at early access and it still is in my opinion.

[@ZephrusPrime]

Nolvus shows that with the right added on tools the Creation Engine is still capable of a lot. The engine is not the problem-it's the development and design. Starfield is the prime example of bad design.

[@AVVGaming1]

I agree. It’s amazing how far wide it was from what we expected. What’s crazy is they made the game knowing no man’s sky was around. A game thst let you travel to any planet seamlessly. So they surely knew it was gonna get comparisons. Not saying one is better than the other, just that they must have known things would come up. Like how people tried flying to the planet on starfield or ran to invisible walls. Surely they figured that would happen?

[@5226-p1e]

@AVVGaming1 i get the feeling Todd figured if ppl were willing to give so much slack to NMS for their messed up at launch game, then ppl will forgive them as well, maybe not at launch, but just like NMS make a game based in the same proc gen nonsense that ppl would eventually like it, however i think the proc gen in NMS is too much, i mean there are so many planet's in that game there is no way anyone will ever see them all. and the funny thing is, i still think a thousand planets was a dumb idea even for starfield, they would have been better off only focusing on 30 planets, and if ppl wanted more than that, focus on adding more for a future update or expansion, but the reason why i feel lessor planets would have been the better idea is so they wouldn't overly use the proc gen nonsense and better flesh out the planets instead of everything being based on proc gen tech and the worlds would be far better fleshed out.

[@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo]

So focus on animation and ignore the other thing the creation engine does that neither rockstar nor cdprojectred do? Ridiculous!!

[@walabixha1746]

I would say modding shows you that with right tools the creation engine is still capable . Nolvus is just an overrated Skyrim mod list that doesn't even play or look that great. The only thing it has is that is easy to install but learning how to mod isn't hard at all

[@atticusgalt10]

The creation engine is what makes the game moddable. If you're a console player, I guess that doesn't matter. But if you're a PC gamer, that world be a huge loss. I know it would certainty lose me.

[@AVVGaming1]

@@atticusgalt10 agreed! No matter what they decide to do, it has to be moddable. I think it’d be better for Bethesda to have an 8/10 game with modding capabilities as opposed to a 10/10 game without

[@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo]

But xbox has tons of creations dowloads.

[@RavenKZP]

Creations created on PC and just upload to Xbox servers and possible to make only because the creation engine is modable.

[@masterofbloopers]

Unreal games are more than capable of being modded. In fact, there are universal modding tools that work across almost all Unreal games, such as UEVR.

[@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo]

@@masterofbloopers Starfield is getting a vr mod

[@lucasblakely155]

Idk. Bethesda is absolutely obsessed with making games that have endless content, and I don’t see them giving up the ability to have modders come in and fix their buggy messes and add content. They will meet their grave soon.

[@AVVGaming1]

I think the endless content thing has been their downfall. I did a video on it “how fallout 3s ending led to starfield”. Really interesting video and it literally explains how they misinterpreted feedback and it led to this setup of endless quests etc

[@keevajazz6286]

It dose not matter if the engine is old or not. Bethesda has completely failed to prove that they are capable of operating it. An engine only suited to make one game isn't good, engines need to be flexible. Also the hole engine argument doesn't work with Starfield it's a completely different kind of "RPG". The engine was never suited for it, yet they did it anyways.

[@5226-p1e]

that's a good point, however they could have done what they did with FO4 when they made the hidden load screens, and just base that gameplay off of that idea, but i get the feeling bethesda were just behind on everything they wanted to create for the game and when it came to launch day, most of everything they worked on didn't quite work as they thought it could work and they settled for less which is why the game is stuck in early access imo. they could have done the hidden load screens like this did in FO4, but either they were lazy or they just ran out of time and released it in the state it was released in.

[@fs5866]

Starfield problem is not even the engine, the whole game was not engaging like it did not make you want to play it, you could have put that game in UE5 and it would be still a piece of crap.

[@TheOnePistol]

With the Starfield situation, Todd Howard has exposed himself for how proud and stubborn he is. I will be very surprised if the next Elder Scrolls isn't on the Creation Engine.

[@carljcmjk8609]

Really boring game a waste of time that game was

[@AVVGaming1]

It’s already been confirmed it’ll be on creation engine 2. If it looks and plays like starfield, I don’t think they could release another 6/10 game. I think this really is make or break for them. Fallout 76, then Starfield. Meanwhile, fallout London drops and shines, skyblivion on the way, they have to get it right.

[@chasiekcorb4209]

@AVVGaming1starfield itself was the make or break for them. They failed with it, and now even ES6 is having a growing amount of pessimism and apathy. As someone who nearly wet their pants when the teaser dropped I don’t think I’ll be looking twice at ES6 until it’s released.

[@5226-p1e]

of course we aren't surprised, they started devlopment a while ago and at the time they stated they were still using the creation engine, so it doesn't at all surprise me because i kept my ear to the ground, however for their Oblivion remaster, there has been some talk of them using both creation engine and UE5 to make that game work.

[@NeoScevenger]

its a family company that wants to milk you with least amount of effort. Their ideas are as old as the company and everyone that works there. They not lazy they just cant hire new people coz that means theyy must SPEND MONEY and they have to either educate/get rid of the current ""FAMILY WORKERS" . This is what it balls down to they are a CHEAPSKATE and completely indenial if they think peoples brains dont develope over time thinking they can feed us the SAME FORMULA. Even street figher series HAD HUGE CHANGE FROM 4 TO 5 TO 6 ALL PLAY different and made HUGE SUCCUESS but tod??? 6 special legendary noval enhance EDITIONS OF SKYRIM FALLOUT and every new game with that same formula ARE YOU KIDDDDING ME??!?!!! WHERES THE Bluddy innovation!

[@cawre]

Honestly my experience with UE5 games so far has been quite mixed when it comes to performance. I also don't think it would feel quite like a Bethesda game or Fallout/Elder Scrolls experience if they completely changed engine. I really like the way most items have physics and how you can interact with them. It wouldn't be as cool with a world that feels more static to me. I think they need to reflect on their older games and what made them great, and build on that. I also think TES6 and its world would work better with the loading screens compared to a space game like Starfield, where it kind of breaks the flow of travel in my opinion.

[@therogueserafim271]

God, no! Please, no! Anything but UE5. Just look at the mess that games using UE5 are and the pc resource hog that it is. And, yes, much of that is due to 0:01 o laziness. But do we really want Bethesda, which is known for the laziness and corner cutting during development, to use a tool that enables even more of such problems.

[@BigmanBrando]

The real problem with the creation engine isn’t the graphics, generally Bethesda’s graphics have always looked sub par to top competitors. IMO the biggest issue is that it’s an inconvenience for the devs to use which makes there games take longer in development

[@5226-p1e]

that's what todd says, but i doubt this simply due to how long it's taken CDPR to make their witcher 4 game in UE5, now it has not released yet, but it's supposedly almost done, and they started making that game only 4 years ago while they were still working on cyberpunk 2077, bethesda almost always takes near a full decade to make each of their games, faster development my ass.

[@fs5866]

@@5226-p1e i do not have any hopes for witcher 4, it is not even made by the same people nor by the same Studio, every CDPR game before was made in Poland with veteran devs from all way back to Witcher 1, Witcher 4 is made in good ol woke USA with a mostly new and different team since all the original devs either left or got sacked.

[@freestyle1227]

Dropping, picking up items and moving them around, storing items in random containers, dismissing companions as they follow a route in real time to get home, NPC's having an inventory giving the players an ability to loot the items they see on them, every house is enterable, every NPC is interactable. Almost all NPC's are named and have their daily routines which correlates with their story. Console commands are simple and plentiful allowing for pretty much anything by typing in a few commands. Lastly Creation Kit is so simple yet allows for so much modification in a few simple clicks, It's all easy to understand what connects to what and how to implement it, making the games like Skyrim and Fallout last as long as they did, even players making their own games by scrapping the existing worlds and using only the engine, that's how much moddability it has. All Bethesda needs to do is improve on the fundamental aspects of the game as stated in this video. Better AI, fixing on some physics, modernized rendering of graphics and improved animations.

[@Rapunzel879]

Bethesda doesn't have to move to UE; it can use Cry Engine instead. Look at what Warhorse was able to do with that engine. KCD, even today, is absolutely stunning when maxed out. I think it would be a really good fit with the games Bethesda makes.

[@threatmaker]

i'm sure microsoft owns a game engine bethesda could switch to. i seriously doubt they would commit to a game engine not owned by them.

[@Rapunzel879]

@threatmaker Microsoft has a bunch of studios making games with UE5.

[@NextWorldVR]

Cry Engine? Another old fashioned Engine that is not in the same category as Unreal. Wayward Realms is being made in UE5.

[@5226-p1e]

@@Rapunzel879 according to the remaster of Oblivion that bethesda has hired out to another studio, they are using both creation engine and UE5, but UE5 is only for visuals, and creation engine for everything else, which likely has to do with the modding capability, but i don't know the specifics of what version of the creation engine they are using, it sounded like it's just a remaster of Oblivion which mostly consists of upgrading the esthetics of the game and not so much the game. however if they plan on doing a remake using both UE5 and creation engine 2, then i feel better about it, but knowing bethesda, they will do the most bare bones way of achieving this game, it's said it will come out this year at some point, which suggests it's going to be pretty bare bones. and if that's the case, then i have much more faith in the Skyblivion modding team over anything bethesda shits out.

[@SkintSNIPER262]

The Engine is not the problem

[@keepitclean8791]

Why do they need to jump through hoops, all we want is for Bethesda to go back to doing what they did best and make tweaks to the engine as they go, it's worked for them since oblivion, Starfield was too ambitious and it was never going to work on their engine. I think I speak for most people when I say that we don't really care for bugs and loading screens as long as the game is worth experiencing.

[@leumi2]

The engine Bethesda used felt old even ten years ago when Fallout 4 was released. They should have changed the engine a long time ago.

[@5226-p1e]

as a gamer who games on this dated engine and with no other engine that allows as much freedom in how an engine could be used in the modding scene, i don't want them to change engines unless the other engine actually does even better job than the creation engine, sadly there is no other engine that does modding better than the jank creation engine.

[@leumi2]

@@5226-p1e I understand their concern about modding freedom. However, I believe relying solely on modding to compete in the modern AAA market might not be enough

[@SkintSNIPER262]

The engine is not the problem

[@MylesDalí]

​@@SkintSNIPER262but the engine is a common attribute. Bethesda will simultaneously say they improved their engine, but also speak about how limited it is because of what they built it for. They use it because it's easy for them. And it's easy to mod. Todd himself used those two reasons as to why they have stuck with Creation. So it literally is their laziness, and unwillingness to grow or change. They would rather do the bare minimum, and try to sell you on outdated technology than invest in any notable change into Creation or switch to an engine that would benefit them, but would take time to train to use well. Bethesda is lazy.

[@leumi2]

@@5226-p1e I understand their concern about modding freedom. However, I believe relying solely on modding to compete in the modern AAA market might not be enough

[@GoalOrientedLifting]

"Skyrim Developer says water is wet"

[@ChrisHarperBooks]

I don't know if UE is the ultimate answer, but they need to do something. Maybe the CE is functional for what they want right now (at least in theory...in actual practice they seem to have little intention of actually putting the work in to make it better). But what about in 5 years? 10? Games development has changed so much in the last decade and i have serious doubts about whether the Creation Engine is capable of handling the current games market, let alone the one of the future. And if it is going to take time to re-rig their entire development process for a new engine, they need to start doing that now. I doubt it would be soon enough for the new elder scrolls game, but honestly the game has taken so long at this point what is another delay.

[@christiangray7826]

Im sorry but if Bethesda really thinks they can stay a gaming powerhouse without adapting how they create games, they are a bunch of clowns. They should be looking at this as an opportunity to create an entirely new department in their company that will ensure they stay relevant. With the resources they have access to, they may as well just create their way back to the forefront of the gaming industry. The only thing keeping them back right now is someone saying “okay but if we change what we’re doing, we won’t be able to keep milking money producing marginally passable content” They need to be saying “okay but what are the benefits of moving to a new engine? How long would it take to design our own? What are the advantages that come with having an entire department dedicated to improving upon an engine of our own design?” Etc.

[@ClellBiggs]

This one was a very calming experience, AVV. I just sat here listening to you talk while enjoying the background music.

[@AVVGaming1]

Haha honestly no matter what we say about Bethesda, they’re backing sound tracks are second to none. Love using the Skyrim background. I’d use it on every video if I could lol the night time one is a personal favourite but when I did the oblivion video recently, man that oblivion soundtrack is fire! Thank you for the support as always!

[@dgcooper96]

There is nothing wrong with the current engine. It just needs to be updated. People think that the Unreal Engine is the magic bullet. There is more than just eye candy that makes a game good. If the Bethesda devs can knuckle down and improve the current engine with modern features, they would be in good shape. Their engine is currently great for rpg and modding. Switching engines would be a huge expense. If it wasn't for frame generation, the Unreal Engine would not be as popular.

[@teegardenb]

Are we having this conversation in 2025, but we refused to talk about it back in 2016?! Let’s compare Bethesda with Ubisoft: “TES3” (2002) VS “Rayman 3” (2003). “TES4” (2006) VS “AC1” (2007). “TES5” (2011) VS “AC2” (2009). “TES Online” (2014) VS “AC3” (2012). Bethesda has a bad habit of using outdated engines for a while now.

[@irasthewarrior]

Bethesda died the moment Zenimax bought it.

[@boopuchannel]

i hope they never swap out the engine because of how much modding support it has. the creation engine is why bethesda games are the most moddable games in the market. the core issue is the uninspiring game design and writing. they can swap out CE for something like UE5 but these issues will still exist but just under a new coat of paint

[@sparhawk1228]

All engines have modding support. It's called releasing modding tools so people can make mods.

[@ksl-988]

@@sparhawk1228 "Can mod" and "can mod well" are very different statements.

[@sparhawk1228]

@@ksl-988 If a game needs mods to make it good. It's not a good game.

[@madmantheepic7278]

His statement still stands

[@niku4259]

Here's the elephant in the room: You'll all be disappointed with TES6 because Bethesda is effectively competing with our childhood and our nostalgia. All those memories we collected over the decades across multiple TES installments will not go away and you can't UN-experience the joy of playing those games as a kid/teen. BGS has no excuse for their lazy writing and lack of evolution. But you gotta be real for a moment and realize this is another half-life 3/left4dead3 situation. They are climing Mt. Everest and after so many years of waiting you can see that the hype is pretty much gone. Bethesda did an arguably worse thing than releasing a bad/mediocre game. They created apathy in their community. Just look at the comments on most videos criticizing BGS. It's either coutiously curious hopes or straight up indifference to how the games will turn out, because thats what happens when you take decades to release anything of substance (no, TESonline and F76 isn't of substance so effectively we've been edging for a proper game for over a decade now!)

[@enfynet]

Like many companies, in an attempt to gain a new broad audience, you end up alienating the audience that gave you success in the first place.

[@Christofer_tTt]

Agreed. That’s me. I was under a different name a fairly well known modded for Skyrim. They should have kept making Skyrim sized games cranking them out as fast as possible and giving other studios a shot to make spin offs like with new Vegas. They bloated their 100 man studio and instead of splitting into groups to work on fallout and tes they bloated out of control with middle manager Karens and did starfield.

[@Falicon]

Revisiting nostalgia has it's limits, especially when things don't evolve or lack quality like you said. They've chosen a Disney Land approach which doesn't suit the gaming world.

[@5226-p1e]

"BGS has no excuse for their lazy writing." actually they do have an excuse, but it's of their own doing, DEI diversity hiring practices pretty much suggests they hired morons to work there and it's costed them dearly as the skilled ppl left the studio and all that was left were these diversity hires who know nothing and were only hired to check a box based on things that don't matter when you make a game, hiring based on sex or race or religion, what i mean by religion is progressive leftism, that's pretty much a religion at this point, and it all spells disaster down the line because these are unskilled employees typically that only exist to check the boxes of ideology which pretty much means an inferior product at the end of the day.

[@AVVGaming1]

They’re losing their supporters because everyone gave them a chance. Everybody let stuff slide and then I think it’s more the ethics of 76, that was handled so badly. And I agree that in trying to gain a new audience they started to lose their original fans. It’s amazing how many companies do this.

[@-carpet-]

Things like the loading screens were also deliberate choices. You can boost from one end of new atlantis to the other without a loading screen, but they couldn’t make the city walkable without one.

[@SkintSNIPER262]

The engine is not the problem. It never has been. The issue is how bureaucratic they've become (just like every other studio and office based company) and how it utterly destroys efficiency. UE5 is overhyped and is not going magically fix anything.

[@bigeststarspark]

a tough one for bethesda indeed, on one hand you have a waaaay outdated engine that performs poorly (starfield), also your latest releases were really poor, and you have a terrible ego thinking you still rule the game industry like you used to over 10 yrs ago. on the other hand - something new and unexplored (new engine and possibly new game on it), again - growing competition, and new game that still is made as it was over a decade ago. I'd say they need to finally step forward, throw away their delusions and do something that everyone does - learn new stuff, I believe it's the only way they could start chagning and hopefully make some NEW great games, not constant copypastes from older projects

[@AVVGaming1]

Totally agree! Unreal or Creation, it doesn’t matter. What’s most important is to make change in general. The direction has been wrong. They need to reset and really think outside the box. I also think they need more feedback from players and they need to actually listen. If they could do that, it would help them so much. Get a list of issues with starfield and work to correct it. Alls they need to do it ask!

[@guruthosamarthruin4459]

If they're supposedly using Unreal Engine 5 in combination with Creation Engine for the Oblivion Remaster, and that is a fairly common thing, why can't they do the same thing for new mainline games?

[@Rastloese]

Bethesdas problem is not their engine. Unreal comes with its own problems. If they require more graphical fidelity they should do the obvious, develop a new one fit for purpose. I will be flored if they didnt do that for the next Elder Scrolls. And yes, the modding and interactable environment is an absolute must. Its all about hightening immersion. But what is more important is to change their creative process.

[@AVVGaming1]

See when we play a boring quest with minimal interactivity, the usual go here press a on item to activate it, some many assume the engine is the issue limiting their ability to create unique aspects. But in reality, maybe the engine could do that but if they say it’s fine, then it’s not the engines fault. But either way, something has to change.

[@K.R.98]

Starfield wasn‘t Bad because of the Engine. Starfield was Bad because Quests, immersion, worldbuilding, exploration and on and on and on… Thats the reason I gave your video a dislike. I usually really like your content, but this time You’re on the wrong track in my opinion.

[@pedrokoury1352]

I don't mind loading screens...if they are no longer than 5 seconds

[@MrJoshuaAM]

Load screens also shouldn't happen super frequently.

[@5226-p1e]

in FO4 they did the hidden load screens for specific locations of the game, where it felt seamless but the load screens did still exist, but not all locations did they use these hidden load screens, they mostly existed in elevator's in the game. funny thing is when modders made that high fps fix mod in FO4 when using these elevator's, it took 5 to 10 seconds to load up into the next section. they could have done something like this for starfield, other games like the new tomb raider games did these hidden load screens as well, but they typically did them in caves where Laura needed to walk a little slower, they were action packed sequences of her crawling through a cave location, what was happening outside of the cave is the world was loading up as she crawled out of the cave, so it all felt seamless because the player didn't feel like they were walking through a load screen. they did the same thing in Hogwarts legacy when the player would transition to outside of the castle, when the game launched ppl complained that the doors to reach outside of the castle took too much time, well what had happened is the game dev didn't slow down the player enough before the outside could be fully rendered so they instead kept the door locked down while the game loaded it up, but when they got this complaint the game dev solution was to make the player slower so it would render the new cell as they reached the door to the outside, a tell tell sign of this was the NPC's inside of the location were very basic and didn't really interact with the player, it was the cost to this hidden load door thing, but it made the game feel a bit more seamless as the result. if only they did something like this for starfield, maybe ppl wouldn't complain half as much about the load screens if they implemented this.

[@skoomaaddict6513]

I remember watching the behind the scenes of the making of the fallout show. In it Todd made a statement about being surprised by the amount of effort that went into making season 1. That spoke volumes to me solely because it alludes to the sentiment that Bethesda doesn’t put effort into making games.

[@SourPatches2077]

The engine is the least of the issues with Bethesda at this point. That said, the loading screens in Starfield were ridiculous. But I can over look lower graphics and even some bugs if the game is good. I’m playing Fallout New Vegas again and I am enjoying myself . It’s the role playing freedom and decent writing that makes that game good.

[@Christofer_tTt]

We don’t know Witcher 4 is going to be great at all. Cyberpunk had a lot of issues however, it is perhaps the number 1 game that people use to show off their graphics still in 2025.

[@fs5866]

i won't play the Witcher 4 simply because it's Ciri, i am not a woman and so i cannot really picture myself as some woman monster hunter warrior that takes herself seriously. I have no problem playing maybe an MMO girl in a skirt of course, but that's for different reasons.

[@DRAGONSSCREAM]

Passion, direction and improving is where they are lacking. Each game has a dumbed down version of the game they had before. Take the combat and building system in Starfield. Feels like FO4 but its way worse 7 years on. Almost all the people who created elder scrolls as we know it are not at bethesda anymore. I doubt they have to tools to out-do skyrim even so many years later

[@stuartrumbel5222]

I remember making mods and mutators for Unreal Tournament way back in the early 2000s. More recently, I made voicepacks and makeup mods for XCOM 2, which again runs on the Unreal engine. You can make mods on UE.

[@zarenboug5410]

But not nearly as flexible as the creation engine.

[@meagerknight1653]

Star field looked good to me. The character animations were my only issues when playing games. The floaty jump in the games is my #1 thing that breaks the immersion for me. Is there a mod that fixes this in Skyrim? I’m currently playing it again.

[@AVVGaming1]

I think the NPC looks and animations are dated but also the loading screens. Those to me are the biggest issues. They stand out above all else.

[@meagerknight1653]

@ yeah the animations in general I agree with. That jumping just stands out so much to me lol. Loading screens are terrible but since I’m playing on the steam deck they are hardly there. I would like to see a door opening with a hand then leaning forward to step in without a loading screen that’s for sure.

[@AVVGaming1]

@ by jumping do you mean like literally jumping in the game with your character?

[@meagerknight1653]

@ yep! It’s like floaty. There’s not weight to it. It’s across all of their games.

[@YarGolubev]

"Bethesda is the only studio that allows you to interact with every object" Hehe What about Half Life 2? Especially Hlaf Life Alix? Or KCD?

[@AVVGaming1]

Love KCD! Can’t wait for the second one! You’re right with it! I saw a post by another KZbin r stating “we don’t care about that”. And I was like hold on, that’s not true. I know a lot of people find this important!

[@NameForgotten1]

At this stage, they need to spend a ton of money enhancing creation engine more. My guess is that at some stage either TES6 or a future game, they will have to change because technology will have moved too far ahead. If TES6 turns out like Starfield, it will be the end of the studio. At this point, Bethesda is too big, the engine too dated, and that is hurting the final outcome. A lean, seasoned development team could swap to Unreal without much issue. Anyone who says otherwise is not being honest.

[@PowerfulRift]

Bethesda definitely need to change your not wrong about that!

[@cheflngsnk1159]

“Yeah Bethesda is cool and all, but they’re no Rockstar” Honestly, people will consistently ask for this but as soon as they do, they will complain that Bethesda games don’t feel like Bethesda games. The creation engine is what gives a Bethesda game its character. It doesn’t need to look the best or play the best. Bethesda provides the experience. The community provides the reason to come back and redownload every couple months or year

[@AVVGaming1]

No im not saying they need to be exactly like rockstar. What I’m saying is the gap between other games and then is widening quickly. They have to close that gap. I’m not talking about making it exactly like rockstar games I mean loading screens, NPC animations, this stuff needs to be updated.

[@TeCHnORiOT]

If they wanted to keep the engine in order to preserve modding capabilities and also update it to modern standards then they should hire modders to come in and actually fix and update the engine. I mean they managed to get working vehicles into New Vegas with the Creation Kit which is essentially a stripped down version of the Creation Engine. If they were given access to the full thing I think they could certainly bring it to modern standards. Unfortunately, I don't see Bethesda even considering doing that any time soon.

[@doreharbridgerobinsoncomed9799]

What about the fact apparently few people even want to mod starfeild? If you have creation engine and no one wants to make mods whats the point?

[@AVVGaming1]

This! Spot on! Compare it to Skyrim it’s night and day. So I guess we circle back to the point that the game has to be right or nothing else matters.

[@NextWorldVR]

No Mods? I can Mod ANY Game made with Unreal Engine... How ignorant to think Unreal games can't be modded!

[@mandalorian9325]

The problem is unreal's flexibility for mods, unreal engine doesn't compare to Creation engine when it comes to mod flexibility.

[@colonelsmith7757]

Clearly you've never modded with either engine.

[@ksl-988]

Most Starfield modders began as Skyrim or Oblivion modders, they were able to jump right in when the CC for Starfield was released. Switching engines would be a huge killing blow to the BS modding community.

[@fs5866]

@@ksl-988 it would very much kill the modding community, you cannot expect the modders to just re-learn a whole new engine for a most likely mediocre game at best.

[@Suavelife85]

The loading screen point is a major issue considering today’s gaming ability. At this point I’m just going to sit back and see how the game does before I decide to spend a dime.

[@Rob19686]

It's not the engine it's the poor implantation of the other things that have been added to it Like HAVOC

[@cherifgrib]

They must change the writing especially Emil

[@AVVGaming1]

@@cherifgrib yeah I’m afraid the Emil engine needs replacing no fixing that lol

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

I don't think Bethesda should switch to Unreal, I think they should REALLY update their own engine. Bring it into the modern age so it can make the Bethesda games that we love but 1000x better.

[@AVVGaming1]

@@TheMysterieRPGguy yes I agree. They need to sit down with some pros and fix the engine. It’s their own past mistakes thst are limiting them and they’ve been putting off deadline with it. As a result, it’s a mess. If they could just take some time to go in and clean it up it would be good.

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

@AVVGaming1 Sad thing is I doubt they will, at least not before TES 6. Maybe if that fails they'll think about it. I like your new profile pic by the way, it's minimalistic but I like that.

[@fs5866]

@@TheMysterieRPGguy i mean if CDPR could make an engine from scratch and Rockstar could also make their own engine for decades, what's stopping Bethesda?Also UE5 is STILL Unreal Engine which is decades old, which of course was written and rewritten tens of times, i do not see the problem bethesda has?

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

@@fs5866 I can guess what is stopping Bethesda but I can't be sure. It takes a lot of time, a lot of money, they would need to hire new people who know how to build and upgrade their engine, because it's not the same as making a game so a normal game dev would not know how to do it (probable). And it would delay up coming projects for at least a few years because it really does take a lot of time.

[@fs5866]

@@TheMysterieRPGguy I mean I cannot give them such excuses I mean it's their game engine, dozens of Dev studios also have their own engines that they always upgrade and bring up to new generations,like the CDPR guys which now have shamelessly thrown away the engine that they worked so much on and that was looking like the top engines on the market, those guys could do it, why can't Bethesda? Hire the talent, I mean you literally need very talented coders and software engineers to bring out all the magical features and tricks that your game can do.

[@NevermoreNeverAgain]

I agree that Bethesda should switch engines but... I strongly disagree that it should be UE5. Unreal Engine 5 has serious issues understanding modern CPUs, possibly being unable to distinguish between efficiency and performance cores, and a serious issue with compiling shaders keeping certain games unable to hit a stable 30 FPS, much less 60... but the perfect solution already exists. A game engine Bethesda had access to for years, highly moddable and with certain modules already in place - id Tech. They wouldn't even need to pay licensing since... they own it. And it's not like Todd doesn't know the engine either, since he did help with "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" which runs on id Tech 7, also known as Motor. It's there already, it looks amazing and is very stable.

[@5226-p1e]

wait, i thought Indiana jones was in UE5, it looks like it uses UE5.

[@NevermoreNeverAgain]

@@5226-p1e No, it's a modified id Tech 7 Engine. It had modules made specifically for the game but... it's object manipulation, a staple of Bethesda games. Part of me thought that Indiana Jones was a test for using id Tech to power Elder Scrolls and Fallout games in the future when I heard Todd was involved, but who can tell.

[@5226-p1e]

@@NevermoreNeverAgain Damn that is crazy, because it looks so much like ue5.

[@NevermoreNeverAgain]

@@5226-p1e It does look good and, unlike UE5, it doesn't have shader issues or CPU allocation problems. Often overlooked. But we have many great engines out there aside from UE5, CryEngine is just as impressive. "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2" will showcase that soon.

[@Balthis5000]

So fast to develop a game. Starfield took, what 8 years to make?

[@AVVGaming1]

Right and as of now, it has been 7 years since they dropped the es6 trailer. This is there speed on an engine they know well! Imagine, if they switched and had to learn a new engine? Could literally take 20 years. And I’m saying this without knowing when es6 comes out lol

[@dangermaus9253]

The trailer has very little to do with when production started.

[@Tropicales__5]

As a game dev, I think they probably should switch! Just... not yet? This is a very classic problem of technical debt imo, but likely not one they can fix immediately just because of the logistics of it. I imagine they will begrudgingly drop CE post ES6 regardless of how well it does

[@cromBumny]

14 years is ridiculous. Either say "We are only doing ESOL" or get a new Elder Scrolls out every 4 years.

[@Palendrome]

You don't get the modding scene these games have without Bethesda's engine.

[@FakeAdirTV]

Hey how about using the id tech engine? Here's an idea for you

[@AVVGaming1]

That’s what I’m saying! It doesn’t have to be unreal or anything specific, but they should literally consider them all! Just compare and contrast. The biggest red flag is that they aren’t testing . Indian jones came out looking good!

[@jodiepalmer2404]

The problem with Starfield was that it came out too late, and it lacked details, storylines, side quests and anything else that made the other Bethesda games great.

[@luismaldonado7668]

In my opinion the foundation of the creation engine isn’t strong enough. Bethesda has a lot to prove with ES6 and we are expecting a lot after waiting around two decades. It is going to be the return of a King and a lot of us may be heartbroken.

[@IMeanMachine101]

Nothing will change now move along and stop repeating the same old trash

[@aleshiacote-young9962]

So basically Bethesda is trying to make a Ferrari out of a beat up old 90’s civic…. 😂

[@Foxtrop13]

the problem is not the engine, the story and gameplay and every mechanic on starfield were trash, the engine too but only at last

[@TheHat--Man]

Bethesda will probably fix it's engine after the starfield backlash. U5 would lack the modding we have on creation

[@autism-is-unstoppable8017]

Training on a new engine will be better in the long run as the constant flow of employees already wastes time training on Bethesda's in-house engine already.

[@Demon.002]

Modders should never have to optimize a game. The base game should have all that it needs. Mods should not be essential and should be only extra stuff for enjoyment.

[@PixelMurder]

My opinion as an old modder of Bethesda games: It's not the engine's fault. Todd and Emil are to blame for everything, and they need to go.

[@MousaThe14]

I would agree if the engine was even the problem. The games aren’t suffering from having a proprietary engine, they’re suffering from management and organization issues. And having an overarching vision that is becoming blander and less RPG-like with every iteration. Okay admittedly there are issues with the engine, some of which I definitely care for, but I didn’t ignore Fallout 4 and Starfield because I thought they looked outdated and janky, I play Nintendo games for gods sakes. I ignored them because they were making games that felt less interesting.

[@leongranger3845]

i also dont thing they should change engines because the graphics isn't bad. they need to work on other aspects of their games instead like more/better content and story and less immersion breaking bugs

[@writerofunimportantthings]

Anyone who has ever seen one of the newer Skyrim graphic mod videos know that the Creation engine is capable of making stunning visuals. It's about the writing and game design, that's it. Game engines don't ensure good games, its devs and writers and artists do. Garbage in, garbage out like everything else.

[@AVVGaming1]

Yeah this is a bit of a problem all across the industry right now. I think Shattered Space was the biggest letdown. Poor open world, poor writing, poor everything. The only thing that was similar to newer games was the price they asked for. Which I paid lol

[@writerofunimportantthings]

@AVVGaming1 I feel your pain. Keep your chin up something awesome will come along. Probability dictates that it's gonna happen sooner than later just like slot machines that don't pay out for a long time. Big hit is coming. 😉

[@MidratsSnack]

I like the engine for Bethesda. Just need to improve it. Easier for modders which are essential at this point when it comes to Bethesda. I wonder if some cinematics can be added when interacting with NPCs and followers etc?

[@AVVGaming1]

I think more NPC moments is essential. They have not improved that in a long time and other games now have so much motion capture that adds uniqueness to each character. Also, the staring at NPC whilst asking questions is definitely now becoming a chore. At least how it was handled in Starfield.

[@lapinebob]

First create a great story then build a game around that story. What I see in games today are nothing but fanciful graphics and no content. The Witcher series, Dragon age series and Elder Scrolls were graphical stories that were great even without the sword play and battles. Too many "games" today are woke political trash and without depth.

[@AVVGaming1]

Agreed and to be honest, I’m not a graphics man. It’s not that vital to me. I think gameplay and story are the most important elements for me personally. Bethesda never had the best story but they had good side stories and they had good environmental story telling too. They seemed to have lost that in starfield. I think they have to find a balance between story and freedom. I think you’re spot on!

[@TheReader6]

The engine is fine. It needs more optimization and they need to stick to making the exact pepperoni pizza we expect. With starfield, they added crickets and forgot the cheese.

[@appleicatpromax7069]

I'm not sure about the idea that the switch to Unreal Engine would destroy the Bethesda modding scene. Sure, the veteran mod devs would have to adapt to a new system, but the community and its passion for those games doesn't just vanish overnight. I'd argue that, on the contrary, UE4 would open up a ton of new possibilities for new modders to join the community. As a well-documented staple in modern gaming, learning to develop for it is a good deal more accessible, and its features/base allows for the ability to do so much more, modifying foundational systems that were previously untouchable due to the instability of the Creation Engine. I also think it's funny how Bruce Nesmith is so assertively pro status-quo because the engine "works for what the company wants to do". Why make the assumption that fans still even want more of the same game in different coats of paint? Surely, Starfield's reception was enough indication that fans are already getting tired of it? If not, what about the countless retrospectives on Skyrim and Fallout 4 that dissect deep design flaws, some inextricably linked to the engine? I think it's time for a change. Maybe the UE4 Oblivion Remaster will convince the last few holdouts for CE that better things are possible.

[@jerryone013]

Bet. The depth skyrim modding provided, only Minecraft and Roblox can catch up. The creation kit engine they provide literally create expansion thru the support of external script. Played Payday 3 and Satisfactory with mods, the mod only sticks with the core gameplay, unlike Skyrim and Minecraft where you can change into and Dark Souls or Civilization like sim settlement. Maybe im wrong, since i dont discover alot of other UE4 or UE5 game modding scene.

[@redwolfstudios5699]

Yeah, I don't know if Unreal 5 is the answer, but a different engine is definitely the answer. If they ditched the Gamebryo shit, and started from scratch and actually developed a new engine specifically designed to compete with modern game engines like UE5 etc. that was also designed with keeping the feel of CE2, and was able to be modded as easily etc etc. I think that would be their ideal situation personally. I don't think the sacrifices need to be either the entire modding community or staying relevant... I think they just need to develop something thats designed for their games to be made on, that isn't held together by duct tape that can still be modded but also has what is needed to keep their games looking and feeling relevant. I'm very interested to see what Virtuoso puts out with this Oblivion remake/remaster this year if its true, because that is a combination of Unreal Engine 5 and Creation Engine, and if thats something that can be done, in the right way, could Unreal Engine 5 be utilized to push Creation Engine 2 forward on future games as well? If BGS has the ability to make their games in CE2 and then push things like animations, graphics, and performance, further by utilizing Unreal... I don't know how possible that is, I don't pretend to be an engineer lol, but that sounds like a unique solution to consider.

[@rainmanslim4611]

It takes a dozen loading screens to get anywhere in every creation engine game. This is unacceptable beyond 2015. As are having "cities" with maybe a dozen people. The engine is so damn limiting, its pathetic

[@thecoffeebadger5807]

The blame is not the Creation Engine, it was the implementation of the game. If Starfield focused on one galaxy, the game would have been better, it could even get game of the year if it could. That way, the game would have handcrafted designs and attention to detail such as a type of loading screen that shows the ship warp speed to the next planet while having no loading screens during your time in that planet. That type of sandbox would have been great but they went too ambitious and created a sandbox that 1% of players who are hardcore Bethesda gamers are going to complete it 100%. The other 99% of players would only play the story mode and then put the game away. A very large sandbox ruins the replayability of the game and I hope Bethesda learns about this. Less is more. Overall, I think the Creation Engine is fine, it was the way the game is designed that is making the engine look bad when in fact it is one of the greatest engines for the modding community to expand the imagination even further. Bethesda is known for this concept because Bethesda encourages modding. You can’t mod a game if the game is badly designed.

[@sirdaemon5338]

The main issue with starfield is the poor quest quality of the quest content the oversized galaxy with empty boring planets and supposedly untouched planets that happens to have bases on etc. Its really not the engine the problem is with Bethesda and their arrogance and lack of understanding of the play bases main opinions. The quality of their content is sub par. Starfield in terms of looks is okay, animations are a big improvement. But the worlds feel empty and lifeless, I mean the npcs do not even have any ai schedules set up. They have no homes they dont leave the shops. This is a marked reversal from other games. Loading screens are an issue but they could have worked around the problem by hiding some via showing an animation or film, such as the ship entering planet's atmosphere. It would be good if they fully updated the creation engine but I would think they would potentially lose a lot of appeal if they moved to unreal - modding is the one thing that keeps their games alive and pretty much any other game engine might end that. We have seen from Skyrim just what the modding community can do, that game is totally changed with really good graphics and animations when using a ton of mods.

[@GusingtonOne]

Great video. Bethesda gets a lot of flak and can be seen as falling behind, but taking the long view and looking at what they've created over the last few decades is really amazing, including the mods. No question that it is time for Bethesda to use a new engine, though.

[@AVVGaming1]

Totally agree! I consider them the trend setters of their time. Morrowind, oblivion, fallout 3, Skyrim, that is some run! I love the Witcher 3, but no Skyrim maybe no Witcher 3? They left such an impression on gaming overall and we all vent frustration because we just want them to kick on. We want them to get back into it and drop another classic. After fallout 4, fallout 76 & starfield were massive steps down. We want them to pick back up!

[@GusingtonOne]

@AVVGaming1 ^A natural way for their fanbase to feel! If we could all capture the magic of Skyrim again I think we would be more than happy. Witcher 3 and Skyrim both brought me such gaming joy :) Even Fallout 4 had a bit of that old magic, I daresay.

[@AVVGaming1]

@ yes fallout 4 was their last decent entry in my opinion. I’m hoping kcd2 is the next one!

[@LeeHounshell]

the creation game engine is unusable for modern games because it's data is cell based and all interiors are separate cells. this means the engine will always be plagued by loading screens. enter or exit any city or building and you get a loading screen. in order to avoid this, the engine needs to be *vector* based, so that all data can be loaded within a given distance of the player. until Bethesda realizes this, they will continue to fail.

[@lazymadness4924]

Honestly, I like this engine, but it's need to be modernized and need full rework. Like, trully BIG rework and update

[@Dunmer4287]

Crash Engine is a blessing and a curse for BGS.

[@Naruku2121]

I do think the engine has it's fair share of potential, modding Skyrim you can take it from the standard vanilla combat and overhaul it to do Dark Souls level of combat if players want. The issue isn't really the engine all though I'm sure it's limits have been stressed, it just seems like Bethesda's utilization of the engine is lacking. With a questionable design philosophy in terms of world design and writing taking a back seat lately, faith in their coding capabilities is also lacking.

[@KCatalano88]

All of this would totally decimate the modding scene. They don't need a new engine. They need to invest into development to rebuild their engine. Bethesda doesn't have the greatest design and writing chops. Their engagement is drvien by the modding scene, this is where the longevity of their games comes from. This is in part because a lot of us have been modding Bethesda games for 20+ years and we understand gamebyro and its forks, we understand .nifs extensively, we understand .dds compression, we understand "Creations" scripting language etc. There's an in house level editor that's more user friendly than anything unreal has (albeit less powerful) and the engine uses .esps / .esms / .esls whereas unreal typically uses packages which totally negates complex and very custom tailored modding builds. The problem is that Bethesda has failed to properly develop their core tech.

[@Adamthegeek70]

I don't care about more realistic graphics, I want more game. and the Creation Engine 1 created a games that are eternal. Same as the Aurora Engine that created Neverwinter Nights 1 (people still update it today) was written in. Update the engine fix it and continue what they have done for decades. There is nothing wrong with the creation engine really it was the content of Starfield that was the issue. and perhaps the Creation Engine maybe wasn't up to paging a planet, but it could be worked on to make it so.

[@BlackJar72]

They'd have to mod UE5 to make it set up the kind of modding system they usually do for the everyone else -- then, they might want to do that anyway, and they wouldn't be the first to modify Unreal Engine for their particular game. Not that I'm an expert in Unreal Engine, I'd worked through a few of Epics tutorials but know far more about Unity (which I'm still not an expert on).

[@Ch1n4m4nn]

GSC just switched to UE for Stalker and since day 1 we have mods. So that is absolutely no argument. Even I am learning it now and it is not that complicated. BG should really think this through... if they screw up TES6 they are done. But hey... Todd is safe... it is his last game🙄

[@AVVGaming1]

I’m going to be doing a video on stalker 2 soon and it’s incredible production story. Unbelievable really what they managed to accomplish.

[@Ch1n4m4nn]

@AVVGaming1 right. Under the circumstances they had to work it's a miracle that it is in the state it is. Yes, there are bugs... but since the release of Slyrim no other game kept me playing like this. And this year I'm playing games since almost 40 years.🙈

[@colonelsmith7757]

Starfield's engine was the least of its problems. Let's say that in theory you rebuild the entire game with whatever engine you'd like, do you think that would fix the story, gameplay decisions, characters, boring secondary quests and canibalized mechanics (shouts/space magic abilities) from previous games? Not to mention all the forced-in stuff, you know what stuff. I've literally had more interesting galactic "stories" play out in vanilla Stellaris without DLCs than Starfield's world. The devs supporting this decision also clearly could not give a rat's ass about mods, which, as anyone who isn't hiding behind his own finger would know, is what keeps any Bethesda title alive. Games like F3, NV, F4, and yes, even Skyrim, would be dead not two years after their release had it not been for mods. I don't mind playing a game that feels a little dated, I wouldn't even call it that, it would just feel different to all the other games that try to be hyper-realistic and just end up feeling sluggish and looking the same. The days when you could tell Call of Duty and Battlefield apart from just a screenshot are pretty much dead.

[@sufficient4834]

The quality of a hammer doesn't matter if the user can't hit a nail

[@savejeff15]

Bethesda has maneuvered themselves in a very bad situation. They neglected core development on their engine for over ten years but made it so that they need the engine due to mods and staff training. As a software developer, development det is real and you don't catch up on this in a few months. They need to have a whole department just working on refactoring and modernizing the engine 12 month a year. But leaving for UR5 is also a very bad option as it would make them just another game development studio like any other that is able to put assets and quests into UE. What is also underrated is the significance of CDPR doing the switch. After they worked so hard to make their engine run cyberpunk like it does now they throw away all that hard work on a modern and well equipped engine. Only having UE as a valid game engine will turn the AAA gaming industry even more into a monoculture of bland Ubisoft like games

[@AVVGaming1]

Yeah a lot of commenters have said that CDPR switched as they’re not the same studio and have all different staff. Whether that’s true or not I’m not sure but it’s a really bold move from them. Especially after how while cyberpunk runs now in 2025. As for Bethesda they really do seem stuck now. I honestly am not sure what the rihht call is. I think they should make changes, but is unreal the answer? I’m not sure. Especially not in exchange for the sacrifice of mods! That would be a bad move I think

[@savejeff15]

@AVVGaming1 even with many new developers, CDPR should have not switched. A own engine can be one of the greatest strength of a studio. You can adapt it to do your type of game the most optimally and gameplay will feel unique giving a branding effect. This also applies to Bethesda but they did it the wrong way. In my opinion they should invest some (more like a lot) of that Skyrim re-release money, hire the top Skyrim modders and other talents to refactor their engine. A UE5 elder scrolls will not feel like a special and unique experience. And for what Bethesda will actually do: they will stay with the old creation engine as long as Todd is there

[@Me_Caveman]

If they properly fix the tech debt in their engine (like removing loading screens and allowing horses to go fast), there is no reason the engine is the biggest problem. The biggest problem is the Bethesda team, lacking creativity and prioritizing the wrong things. They need better design across the board.

[@darkeninjx5619]

No. If Elder Scrolls 6 doesn't have it's predecessors' modability it's an easy pass for me

[@AVVGaming1]

@@darkeninjx5619 yes mods are integral. I think it’d be better for them to release an 8/10 game with mods, opposed to a 10/10 without. Long term anyway.

[@justafan2745]

Unreal engine doesn't magically makes games better it just makes it look better

[@Slvrbuu]

Ugg. More calls for homogenization of the industry, as if that hasn't led to massive stagnation in other industries. Unreal is a pretty engine, but it seems like it's either unwieldy, or just super easy to fall into the trap of default settings. Quite a few recent unreal games have looked nice, but run like an absolute mess. *Stalker 2*... And those who have managed to get it to run well have said they basically had to make their own stuff to sit on top of the engine. At the end of the day, Epic designs the engine for one thing, Fortnight. That's where most of their effort goes, so if you game isn't like Fortnight, then you need to go through the effort of getting it to work like you need it. The only other good thing about it, is a lot of people are trained on it. Aside from the obvious power Epic will be able to wield because of their market dominance, I feel like if you built a design team to be a more permanent thing, rather than the constant shuffling that developers and publishers do, then making your own engine would be perfect because you know exactly what you need for the kinds of games you make. Bethesda does this, they know what kind of games they want to make, and they know how their engine will best suit that need. They have the source code, and can add and remove things as they need. So, they don't need to ask daddy Epic if they can kindly put it in the engine when they are done further optimizing for Fortnight. What Bethesda needs is to hire some strong engineers to work the engine, and treat them well so they want to stay and constantly optimize the engine further. An alternative is Bethesda can release their own engine for public use and then more people will have experience with it -- but again, they will need dedicated engineers to keep it maintained and respond to feedback.

[@AVVGaming1]

I think you’re probably right. I think this is the solution. My question would be why hadn’t this been done already? I mean it took 8 years for starfield. It’s been 7 years since the es6 trailer. Surely there’s time there to really get some pros in and get it sorted. I mean they got the money right! If they need money just release Skyrim 2.82 lol

[@ksl-988]

Starfield had a lot of problems, but the engine wasn't one of them. The reason people are STILL playing Skyrim is because of the mod support provided by Creation Engine. Modders and developers alike would suffer from switching engines. I also don't personally want to see all game studios switch over to UE5 as everyone seems to be cheering for. We really don't need a gaming landscape with one single homogenized game engine ruling them all. Also, if BS does change engines, I hope they put the CE out to the community as an open-source engine. Then the modders who have been behind them for so long can go on to make the greatest Skyrim game of all time while BS would make a bunch of middling UE5 action-RPG clones.

[@Vantud391]

They had all previous years and money to make better new engine, instead they made Slopfield.

[@AVVGaming1]

Yeah that’s about their priorities. What’s crazy is that even then, starfield still took 8 years! With like 8 dungeons? Every planet randomly made by procedural generation? How does it feel smaller than Skyrim and yet took 3 times as long to make. Problems are big over there for sure.

[@Vantud391]

@AVVGaming1 I think one of the reason is they are flooded with incompetent DEI hired employees. Another is...well, most can already know that is Todd stays as head for too long.

[@AVVGaming1]

@ the talent is in indie game studios now. That’s why I have high hopes for KCD2!