Former Bethesda developer says studio could squash more bugs before release

In a nutshell: Bruce Nesmith, a designer for several major Bethesda productions over the past few years, left the studio in 2021. Despite his departure, he still has plenty to say about his former employer, game development practices, and the persistent issue of bugs.

Nesmith served as the lead designer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one of Bethesda Studios' most successful role-playing games. Skyrim is also one of the most complex – and bug-ridden – experiences in modern RPG history, which is why Nesmith still harbors some frustration toward the Maryland-based studio's development practices.

In a recent interview, Nesmith explained that large developers like Bethesda are fully aware their games are riddled with bugs even before launch. These issues are no "mystery," he said, as video games – particularly Bethesda titles – have become so vast and complex that countless systems are constantly interacting with one another.

Achieving a bug-free release is essentially impossible, Nesmith acknowledged. With millions of lines of code working together, countless things can go wrong, though "often they do." Award-winning Bethesda games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 were "forgiven" by players in the past for their buggy, messy launch states, but today's gamers are less tolerant.

"I will be the first person to say that Bethesda Games could have a higher degree of polish," Nesmith said, though he has nothing to do with the studio since 2021.

Bethesda, based in Rockville, is notorious for developing vast, open-world RPGs that allow players to interact in complex (and sometimes chaotic) ways with NPCs. As a result, seeing an NPC endlessly run into a wall can feel like a minor hiccup in an otherwise unforgettable experience.

Fixing bugs can take months of additional work, and major studios like Bethesda are often forced to ship games despite having a detailed list of known issues already identified in the code. According to Nesmith, most of the bug-fixing occurs post-launch, though he considers the idea of making this list publicly available to gamers on day one an interesting dilemma.

Before leaving Bethesda, Nesmith also worked as a systems designer on Starfield. Although Microsoft described the game as Bethesda's least-bugged release, it was still far from perfect at launch. The studio is now busy rolling out updates and developing new content, but many gamers believe that bugs aren't the most pressing issue in the polarizing space-opera experience.