Former Bethesda executive Pete Hines has said that, under Microsoft’s ownership, Bethesda isn’t part of anything “genuine” or “authentic”. In an interview with the Firezide Chat newsletter, Hines also revealed that he had considered leaving Bethesda after Microsoft acquired the company, noting that he felt “powerless to do what I think needs to be done to run this place properly.”
“I was staying there because this place still needs me,” he said. “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 f*** 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 am not going to sit here and watch this happen right in front of me.”
Further in the interview, he revealed various other details of his time at the company leading up to his eventual departure. Among other things, he spoke about internally complaining about Call of Duty remaining multiplatform after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, while Bethesda’s games, like Starfield, had to remain console-exclusive to Xbox. It is worth noting that Microsoft has since decided to leave behind the idea of console exclusives altogether, focusing on more multiplatform releases in the future.
As for how Bethesda operated during this time, Hines called it the worst part of his career, since he had “to join a place that I genuinely was a fan of and 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 s*** that sounds good and then as soon as you leave this room that’s completely forgotten? Because that is not how we ever operated at Bethesda.”
Hines concluded by talking about Bethesda’s current state under the ownership of Microsoft. “That’s not to say everything [Bethesda] said, we did,” he said. “Yeah, we probably didn’t f***king 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 is not genuine. And that shouldn’t be a surprise to you.”
Hines had announced his departure from Bethesda back in 2023, revealing that he would be retiring, and beginning “an exciting new chapter of my life exploring interests and passions, donating my time where I can, and taking more time to enjoy life.” For more on Hines and his time at Bethesda, check out what he had to say about the canvas bag controversy surrounding the release of Fallout 76.
