Rumor: Bethesda has been in turmoil since the death of their CEO

[Puff]

I'm hearing a bunch of interesting shit, including:

1) The place has been in turmoil since their CEO Altman died a few years ago.
2) There are company-wide issues with management, for example with Shinji Mikami leaving Tango, apparently there are major disagreements/power struggles including how to integrate with Xbox/MSFT.
3) Pete Hines was made Head of Global Publishing but nobody knows what that means exactly
4) People really phoned it in over Covid. Especially a lot of the higher ups who got paid millions when the company was acquired by MSFT (Altman took care of a lot of people, he was by all accounts a good dude). But high level employees were doing crazy shit like calling into meetings from the Caribbean properties they had bought. Just a total lack of give-a-shit
5) Todd Howard is apparently one of the only guys left over there in a senior position who actually wants to make video games.

Rumor: Bethesda has been in turmoil since the death of their CEO

Haha, Starfield is delayed. I'm hearing a bunch of interesting shit, including: 1) The place has been in turmoil since their CEO Altman died a few years ago. 2) There are company-wide issues with management, for example with Shinji Mikami leaving Tango, apparently there are major...

rpgcodex.net

This is consistent with what I've heard from my source who is familiar with Bethesda's thinking. He said that they are also not working on TESVI at all because they're "bored" with the setting. They might license it out but they won't develop it themselves. He did not specify who exactly was bored of the setting, whether it was Todd or the team in general.

Rumor: Bethesda has been in turmoil since the death of their CEO

Haha, Starfield is delayed. I'm hearing a bunch of interesting shit, including: 1) The place has been in turmoil since their CEO Altman died a few years ago. 2) There are company-wide issues with management, for example with Shinji Mikami leaving Tango, apparently there are major...

rpgcodex.net

I don’t know if he is entirely trustworthy but what is your thought about that?

 

[avenovah]

I don’t know if he is entirely trustworthy but what is your thought about that?

Let the snakes eat each other.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Makes sense and it's not surprising.

They wouldn't have sold in the first place if things were going smoothly and after getting paid it's probably just a matter of waiting out their contract.

Even if the rumor is fake or exaggerated the basic premise is most likely true.

 

[Gediminas]

couple of years more and the big part of zenimax/bethesda will be dead.
those idiots at m$ mismanage 5 studios, how they gonna manage 25 of 35 studios with thousands of employees? they will kill a lot of studios till we reach next gen.

 

[ghostz]

Yeah I don’t buy into TES not being made at all.

 

[VillaiN]

couple of years more and the big part of zenimax/bethesda will be dead.
those idiots at m$ mismanage 5 studios, how they gonna manage 25 of 35 studios with thousands of employees? they will kill a lot of studios till we reach next gen.

Yea, thats what scary. All those ips destroyed.

 

[Darth Vader]

I don't know if this is true or not, but assuming it is (and that's a big assumption), it's not uncommon in large organisations when they are acquired, especially by even bigger organisations with shit culture to begin with. In the event this is true, it would just show how awful Phil Spencer is as a leader.

 

[Vertigo]

I’m still a bit bitter about Bethesda selling out. I kinda enjoyed the variety to their studios and publishing efforts. I’m not going to hope they fuck up tho. They’re carrying Xbox itself right now and they didn’t ask for it — they were bought. Am I concerned Phil Spencer’s shit leadership will do to do Bethesda what he’s done to every Xbox studio? well yeah.

Starfield launching buggy and unstable will not be a result of Microsoft purchase tho. Or representative of any decay within the studio… it should be expected because that’s what they do.

 

[ethomaz]

It is no different from what happened with 343i but I will take these rumos as huge grain of salty.

Unless somebody more credible come to speak of.

 

[Johnic]

To no one's surprise. Most, if not all, AAA first party studios at MS are having issues. It's not a coincidence.

This alone should be grounds for the acquisition not going through. Devs go there to die.

 

[Gamernyc78]

This is just a big guess based off past history with micro buying companies and the turmoil ensuing. You could have asked any one of us here and we would have guessed the same. The common mantra here is "Microsoft will fuck up and mismanage their newly acquired companies" and for good reason.

 

[Yobo]

Wouldn't surprise me if true. Would also explain why MS is struggling to get anything out even among the acquisitions made before Bethesda

That's why Sony incentivise their payments and also invested in retention and employee incentives with Bungie

 

[John Elden Ring]

Well that explains some shit,

But thwe source is dubious at best

 

[Box]

Yea, thats what scary. All those ips destroyed.

Just like EA and Activision

 

[Bryank75]

But I thought all the MSFT money was gonna make Zenimax better?

Sounds credible but also anyone could just say such a thing and be half right by looking at the various things that happened over the last few months.

 

[nongkris]

Ohh how nice it would be to be rich enough to buy properties on an island and not have to come into work. Anyways, I hope this is true.

 

[peter42O]

Personally, Microsoft needs to get in there and clean it all out if necessary. Microsoft needs to integrate Bethesda into Microsoft and eliminate them from being an independently run publisher when they're owned by Microsoft. It's fucking stupid. Then, Spencer and Booty need to start being more hands on with every studio in general. If it was me, I would want progress reports and status updates every three months. I would want to know how all the projects are proceeding and if the studios need anything like more personnel, more money or more time and if so, why? The entire hands off approach is fine for letting them create the games that they want to create but still need to be on their ass. I believe this should also apply to ABK after it goes through.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Personally, Microsoft needs to get in there and clean it all out if necessary. Microsoft needs to integrate Bethesda into Microsoft and eliminate them from being an independently run publisher when they're owned by Microsoft. It's fucking stupid. Then, Spencer and Booty need to start being more hands on with every studio in general. If it was me, I would want progress reports and status updates every three months. I would want to know how all the projects are proceeding and if the studios need anything like more personnel, more money or more time and if so, why? The entire hands off approach is fine for letting them create the games that they want to create but still need to be on their ass. I believe this should also apply to ABK after it goes through.

It has actually been the opposite with Microsoft. In the past they were too involved in overseeing development and would fuck up by restricting devs and changing their vision (as per maby rumors and testimonies in the past). They only started talking about hands off with devs a year after Sony went public stating many times they allow devs to do their own thing and they just foster them. Microsoft just started parroting those same lines because they saw it worked for Sony. Same as making their ips more open once Sony started talking about it with Uncharted 4 and others. Problem is Microsoft isnt a leader, just a follower and do not know how to manage their companies. They have no unique identity or vision. Companies btw that have released blockbusters without being under Microsoft in the past.

 

[Shmunter]

Perfect fit for ms culture

 

[daniel5043]

stupid. Then, Spencer and Booty need to start being more hands on with every studio in general.

Do we know if they aren't hands on at the moment