Skyrim’s lead designer and former senior systems Starfield designer Bruce Nesmith believes that Bethesda does not need to switch to a new game engine.
In an interview with VideoGamer Nesmith explains why Bethesda’s proprietary Creation Engine is still in use despite its age. He believes that the engine is not an end in itself, it must be optimal for the games the company creates.
«We are arguing about the game engine, let’s talk about the game. The game engine — is not the point, the game engine serves the game itself. You and I could name a hundred bad games that used Unreal. Is it Unreal’s fault? No, it’s not Unreal’s fault».
The Creation Engine has long been used to create some of the best role-playing games of all time, and it’s also evolving – what started as an offshoot of Gamebryo, which has long since gone out of business, has gradually become the Creation Engine.
«This engine was constantly changed, updated, and improved to make exactly the games that Bethesda creates: The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Starfield. It is perfectly tuned for such games»
That is why replacing the engine does not seem to be the best solution. It would also take many years to adapt another one. Nesmith notes that this is a big risk for Bethesda. Gamers criticize the studio’s engine for being archaic in many ways, including «wooden» animations, and a large number of «glitches» in games. On the other hand, it is said that Unreal Engine may not be suitable for creating RPGs. You can learn more about this from the following games of another experienced developer, Polish CD Projekt Redwhich replaced its own REDengine with Unreal.
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