Ex-Bethesda Vet OPENS UP on Xbox... (it's not pretty)

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Salutations everybody. It is Maddie here today. Hope you're all doing absolutely excellent. And I got one question for you. Do you like spicy food? Because Mr. Hines is serving up something mighty spicy. I always like Pete Hines interviews because this dude is not afraid to say what's on his mind. And I guess the NDA is up because after he left Bethesda in 2023, we had not heard much from this man at all. But all of a sudden lately, he's doing a lot of interviews as are a lot of ex Bethesda developers. something that we need to note as a trend because they're also saying a lot of the same things. Last we heard from Pete Hines was September 2025 and it's there that he talked about Bethesda and how there's no question that that's not the same company anymore. I was a bit surprised to see this come from Pete Hines because he is the senior vice president of global marketing communications as well as the head of publishing at Bethesda Softworks at one point. He was there for nearly 25 years. And not just a Bethesda lifer as a company man, but like Bethesda and their family of studios had a well, that's the word, familial environment.

[00:01:02]They fought for each other. They rode for each other. Like that's how it absolutely was. And no doubt after Xbox acquired them. That's been completely gutted. Key talent like Matt Fer or Harvey Smith are out. Studios have been shut down across Tango Gameworks almost, which then got sold off to Crafton, who's obsessed with AI. So, I'm sure that'll end well all the way to Arcane Austin being closed down.

[00:01:27]I imagine there's a lot of feelings about that and how Xbox has handled things with Bethesda. And there's really no room for doubt now because we have a conversation with Pete Hines, a fireside chat is what it's called. And in this are some really spicy quotes. Pete says what's on his mind, no filter. And again, guess the NDA is up. So, let's go through it, ladies and gentlemen. Let's talk about what Pete Hines had to say about Xbox and filter through it all. If you're new here and you're into what's going on with Bethesda or Xbox, there are two P's in a pod. Consider subscribing. I'll have this link down below if you want to go ahead and give it a read for yourself, but I picked out a lot of the key quotes and stories here. That was the thing he says that hit me the hardest when I retired. It was not like, oh, I don't get to work on Elder Scrolls 6. There's always going to be an Elder Scrolls I'm not working on.

[00:02:16]I can't be here forever. but not getting to see the people because again keep in mind every single person that worked in marketing comms at Bethesda when I left I had hired because there was nobody there when I got there. And so to bring all those people in and to get them to buy into how I think we should do things in the way I want to market and how we talk about games and how we work with each other and how we organize ourselves, they all bought into that and it was really hard to walk away from them and not get to see them on a regular basis. At the same time, it was also a point of me realizing I could not spend the rest of my life doing something that wasn't for me. It was for everybody else, which is what I was doing. So, this is important context because I know for a lot of people it's like blah blah blah story time. But what it does tell you here is that Pete was here for his people. Like this guy was fiercely loyal to Bethesda and the people there because again of that more familial environment. People really deeply cared for each other there. Not that they don't nowadays, but I'm just saying that again. And when you get bought by like Microsoft, I imagine some of that just everyone got paid. Kind of goes out the window a bit here.

[00:03:19]So teeing that up, let's get into how Pete's really feeling. He says, "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." And when I was unable to do what I thought my job should involve in continuing to have that place be, you know, if not the most efficient publisher in the game industry, it was way the [ __ ] up there. And when I couldn't protect it, and I saw how it was getting damaged and broken apart, and frankly mistreated, abused, whatever word you want to use, I said, I'm not going to sit here and watch this happen right in front of me. I think I've really done everything I can do. 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."

[00:04:15]I mean, I gave a two weeks notice. I was waiting until after Starfield. I knew I was leaving the year before. Every time Todd delayed Starfield, I thought, "Fuck, I'm here another eight months."

[00:04:24]And Todd was the only one who knew. It's another reason I love that man. He showed up for me when I was just at my wit's end and got me through that and got me out of there in a way that I still retained my sanity. Now, look, there's two sides to this that we do have to fairly assess. There is the Bethesda side, there is the Xbox side of things. I think the Xbox side of things is a little bit more obvious, but I want to get into the Bethesda stuff to just balance it out, right? Cuz Pete talks about being incredibly efficient, well-run video game developer and publisher. And I can agree with that in instances, no doubt about it. However, at the time that Bethesda was selling off to Xbox, projects that were green lit were games like Redfall, games like Wolfenstein, Young Bloodood, games like Crown Jewel of Them All. And I know it's doing better nowadays, Bethesda likes to remind us, but let's be honest, at launch 76 really bad, really grim era for Bethesda and sort of what it would result in long term. There were games that were lesser appreciated at the time, like Dishonored, Death of the Outsider, games like Evil Within 2 that were just not doing well. Wolfenstein 2 also didn't do very well. All that was doing well underneath the Bethesda banner by the time they were selling off to Xbox was of course Bethesda Game Studios because they're literally superhuman and are able to just get a huge amount of players into Fallout and Elder Scrolls and yes, even Starfield.

[00:05:48]But the reality is, and and please for the love of God, do not take this like me defending Xbox cuz I got my own two cents on that as well. Just give me a moment. All right. But the reality is that Bethesda sold off at a time to Xbox where they were really weak. Okay? Like that's just the fact of the matter. And it felt like for a lot of us, maybe Bethesda could get back to focusing on what they were good at. And I think that's why Pete maybe feels the way he does because he'll talk about in just a moment here how he thought he knew Xbox basically and how it's not really what he thought it would be.

[00:06:20]Pete Hines's feelings on Xbox have not been a secret for a while. I mean, he mentions here how when Todd delayed Starfield for like 8 months, he's like, "Damn, I got to stay here for like another year." Yeah. I mean, you look right here at this email that leaked during the FTC case for acquiring Activision. And you see a 2022 email of P9 saying, "Did anyone at Xbox think about giving us a heads up on this?

[00:06:40]Todd's going to DICE in a couple weeks.

[00:06:41]You don't just think a journal might find him and press him on why the blow is okay for COD or any Activision Blizzard games, but not Tez 6 or Starfield or at any slash every future interview he does. There's no denying that when Xbox got a hold of Bethesda, they completely gutted them." Like last year is where I crashed out. I was like, "You you guys you guys got to be out of your freaking minds." Like especially with Zamax online studios like because as I talked about with the Phil Spencer tenure from my point of view it really reads like because we were very lax to open this generation that team had to make cuts later on that they should never have ever had to make cuts on. But projects had to suffer because margins weren't being hit because we let other projects get a really long leash that ended up resulting in nothing. If it was not clear already how Pete felt, he describes this as the worst part of his job. He says that was the worst part.

[00:07:29]Yeah, that was the [ __ ] worst part.

[00:07:31]He says it was to join a place I was genuinely a fan of and the people there I genuinely held in high regard and esteem and then to get there and see how it actually worked. To talk is something, right? But I'm very much about what is the follow-up to that? Do you mean what you say or are you just saying [ __ ] that sounds good and then as soon as you leave the room that's completely forgotten because that's not how we ever operated at Bethesda. And that's not to say everything we said we did. We know, man, that uh that canvas bag situation, Pete, come on. Yeah. So, I'm glad I'm glad we're self-aware here.

[00:08:03]He says, "Yeah, we probably didn't come [ __ ] close to that." But that was absolutely our intention. We are going to do what we say and say what we do and be genuine and be authentic. And truthfully, I still think Bethesda is just part of something that is not authentic and not genuine. And that shouldn't surprise you. I'm not trying to turn this into dogging on past Xbox leadership, but when you look at the actions taken since that leadership group acquired Bethesda, how things have gone, what remains of Bethesda, and then the reaction here. This is why so many people have left Bethesda in recent years. You look at some of their core teams during Skyrim even and you'll notice a lot of those faces are no longer at the company. Bethesda Game Studios used to for example pride itself on long tenured employees because they would be there for 10 15 years I think was the minimum. That's exceedingly rare in video game development. But since they were acquired by Xbox and also since Bethesda themselves decided to deviate by saying hey 76, hey Starfield, then Elder Scrolls 6 for however long it's going to take. people who joined to work on say Elder Scrolls or Fallout basically were told, "Yeah, like in 15 years." That sound good? And by the way, if you worked on Skyrim, you're like, "Man, can't wait to work on the next Elder Scrolls game." It's like, "Cool, dude. In 20 years." And that's why a lot of people exited because The Soul got sucked out with Xbox. And on top of that, the devs who were there to to create art for IP that they were a fan of ended up working on, say, multiplayer Fallout projects that they originally didn't sign up for or of course new IP that was getting in the way of the thing that most of the studio did seem to want to work on at the time. But it is interesting to see PEN say to talk is something, but I'm very much about what the followup to that is. And again, I do think about how exclusivity and the conversation at the time was like Phil saying this, Phil saying that, Phil saying this, Phil saying that. Sarah saying this, Sarah saying that, and how it just turned into this external back and forth about things like exclusivity.

[00:10:08]I'm sure that's not exactly what Pete Hines is honing in on, but when you look again at the leaked email during the FTC court case surrounding Xbox acquiring Activision Blizzard King, you'll see here again that he's really cranking Xbox for their lack of communication.

[00:10:22]Something that at least it looks like now Xbox is starting to get their ducks in a row on, but absolutely plagued this entire generation.

[00:10:31]And the result with Xbox and how they've handled Bethesda is I think it sends a poor message like long term when no doubt Xbox maybe looks to acquire another studio at some point in time.

[00:10:42]They'll look at what happened to Bethesda and be like, "Dude, I know they weren't sitting pretty. They had a lot of bad stuff going on with them, but like the amount of talent that got gutted there, like Bethesda was always first in line on the chopping block. It felt like every goaround. And the main reason that Xbox bought Bethesda, remember that quote from Phil Spencer?

[00:10:59]about great games where Game Pass exists, but then it just like transformed radically over time. A lot of what Pete says here kind of reads to me, I could be assuming entirely incorrectly, but it reads to me like he might have known what was on the way with what was going on with like Tango and whatnot, and just eventually was like, I can't do anything to stop this.

[00:11:17]I am just a cog in the machine. I'm out.

[00:11:21]And so, I just thought this was kind of like a very interesting read here, full of emotion. I always like this sort of spicy stuff to kind of dive into it and I like to see exdevs have these transparent conversations. I've seen some people go like, "Oh god, he's whining. He's complaining." That sort of stuff. But I like when a dev who's got some feelings has no NDA and just lets us know what's really going on and how they feel about that. We usually get a lot of PR speak in this industry. So I appreciate just being like, "Yeah, they're part of like an inauthentic company now." And like that's how I feel about things. Like just really going at them. It's good to know where ex- Bethesda developers stand because I think it helps contextualize for a lot of people where they look at Bethesda and they're like, "What's going on?"

[00:11:59]That some of it is internally with them, but a lot of it also could have to do with Xbox and that's why I'm hoping that the new leadership core, you know, gets things moving in the right direction.

[00:12:09]We'll see in due time, but I wanted to pass this along to all of you. Get your thoughts down below. So, fire away.

[00:12:13]Other than that, I'll catch all of you in the next one. Stay sexy, stay active.

[00:12:17]I love you all. Peace.