Former Bethesda publishing boss Pete Hines has said he walked away from the Elder Scrolls and Fallout studio after almost 25 years following Microsoft’s takeover as he no longer believed it was part of something “authentic” or “genuine.”

The details:

Hines, who retired from Bethesda in 2023 shortly after the launch of Starfield, told Firezide Chat that he realized he “could not spend the rest of my life doing something that wasn’t for me" after Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, resulting in his departure. "I was staying there because this place still needs me. I just hit a point of, 'Yes, it needs me, and I am powerless to do what I think needs to be done to run this place properly, to protect these people, to maintain what we worked so hard to create, which is an incredibly efficient, well-run video game developer and publisher,'” he said.
He went on to say that when Microsoft got directly involved with the company, he “saw how it was getting damaged and broken apart and frankly mistreated, abused” by the tech giant. "This is not when I wanted it to end or how I wanted it to end, but that's not really up to me. And at a certain point, truthfully, my mental health was so deplorable that I just said, 'I cannot,'" Hines said.
Hines also revealed that he intended to leave Bethesda much earlier than he actually did due to the delays surrounding Starfield’s release, causing him to depart almost a year later.
The former executive added that, while the studio has occasionally failed to meet expectations, such as with Starfield, the teams working on the game have previously had good intentions with their promises. However, he believes that the company's priorities have shifted negatively. "Truthfully, I still think Bethesda is just part of something that is not authentic and is not genuine. And that shouldn't be a surprise to you," he said.

Former Bethesda executive Pete Hines says the company became “part of something not genuine”