LogInBethesda's approach to bugs in their games is justified by the philosophy of embracing chaos and prioritizing players' freedom.
Image credit: Bethesda Game Studios, Starfield
Recently, Pete Hines, the head of Bethesda's publishing division, expressed his opinion on Bethesda's bugs, which stirred numerous discussions. As most players know, a lot of Bethesda's games, for example, Skyrim and Fallout 76, garnered a reputation for their expansive open-world RPG experiences but which always came with occasional bugs that inhabited them.
Speaking of occasional game bugs, Hines has recently told GamesIndustry.biz that players' freedom is the priority, noting that all the quirky errors, like your partner's standing way too close to you, can't possibly get in the way of getting and enjoying the experience from games.
"We embrace chaos. We could make a safer, less buggy, less risky game if we wanted to. But what we try to lean into is player freedom. Yes, there's going to be some little things here and there where your companion might stand a little too close to you sometimes, yet the freedom you get, and the things that happen because of that, we absolutely love and embrace", says Hines.
Image credit: Bethesda Softworks, Fallout 76
He assures that some of the craziest situations in their games were created on purpose and shared one of his stories. On Neon, a planet entirely covered in water with a city built on its surface, the creators got an amusing bug involving a shark. Somehow, the shark managed to board an elevator, leading to a hilarious scenario where the elevator doors would open on a street level, and the shark would slide out. The sight of it caused chaos, with people screaming and running in all directions.
Hines enthusiastically joined the chaos, and then he said: "Do not take this bug out of the game!" Although, as he mentioned, the game devs probably eliminated that bug, even though he enjoyed such things happening.
Bethesda embraces the chaotic nature of game development and acknowledges that a few bugs may slip through the cracks. However, when it comes to Starfield, the number of bugs can be counted on one hand. Thus far, it has been observed that Starfield stands out as the least problematic game from Bethesda.
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