Many people had a voice in the development of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim at Bethesda, including co-lead designer Kurt Kuhlmann. However, in a new interview, he has revealed that he had some strange ideas for the follow-up to the 2011 RPG that would involve a cliffhanger ending that would lead into The Elder Scrolls 7. Speaking to PCGamer, Kuhlmann compared his vision of The Elder Scrolls 6 with the seminal Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.
“I had in my mind that TES6 was going to be like The Empire Strikes Back,” he said, going on to explain that the elven supremacists among the Thalmor would eventually be built up as the main antagonists for The Elder Scrolls 7. This build up would largely take place throughout The Elder Scrolls 6, and would involve the group’s ambition to gain control over the entirety of Tamriel.
He acknowledged that this kind of ending wouldn’t really be allowed in a Bethesda game, referring to a cliffhanger ending as being “completely unfeasible.” This is especially true for a studio that has incredibly-long development cycles. “That’s not a good way to end a game and say, yeah, we’ll see you in 10, 15 years,” he said.
Further in the interview, Kuhlmann also spoke about how the culture of game development at Bethesda had changed since the release of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. He noted that, while the senior developers were working on the game directly back then, over time, these senior developers would start taking more managerial roles. Kuhlmann described it as feeling “more bureaucratic,” going on to say that: “The expectation was… your job can’t be also making content if you’re actually managing that scope of the project.”
His eventual departure was a combination of this culture shift, along with the fact that he wouldn’t get to work as the lead designer on The Elder Scrolls 6. Director Todd Howard had previously promised Kuhlmann that after wrapping work on Fallout 4, the studio would then start the development of The Elder Scrolls 6. However, it would instead follow up on Fallout 4 with multiplayer title Fallout 76, which would then be succeeded by Starfield.
“I was obviously one of the old-timers there and had a lot of experience. Bruce [Nesmith] and I had been the co-leads on Skyrim. I think most people would call it a successful project, so I thought that it wasn’t unreasonable for me to think that I could be a successful lead on TES6. It wasn’t just my expectation—I had been told that that was going to happen,” he said. “And they made the decision, no, you’re not going to be the lead.”
While no new details about The Elder Scrolls 6 have been revealed since the game’s original announcement back in 2018, Howard had said back in December that development on the title has been “progressing really well.” Design director Emil Pagliarulo acknowledged the “time pressure” that the studio has been facing from its fans, and has asked these fans to be patient.
