Veteran Bethesda developer Kurt Kuhlmann has told FRVR that Todd Howard is “very protective” over The Elder Scrolls IP, which is the primary reason the fantasy-RPG series hasn’t been given its own spinoff like Fallout: New Vegas.
Kuhlmann, who served as co-lead designer on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and also worked as senior designer on Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, was asked why Bethesda didn’t give another studio the reins to The Elder Scrolls to produce a spinoff game. His response was that Howard didn’t want a similar scenario to happen that transpired with Fallout: New Vegas, namely where people felt the series would be better off in the hands of another team – in Fallout’s case, Obsidian Entertainment.
The whole New Vegas thing did create this – at least the perception of this – ‘Who makes a better Fallout game? Oh, they should just give it to Obsidian’ [situation]. There are the Obsidian, New Vegas people that think obviously New Vegas is way better, Obsidian is way better at making those games, and why don’t they just get Fallout altogether.
Kuhlmann didn’t “know that Todd wanted to create that situation again for The Elder Scrolls,” particularly as that series was created entirely by Bethesda. “Todd, from my time there, he is very protective of it,” he commented.
I do think The Elder Scrolls Online took the heat off. There was a new Elder Scrolls product, and it was ongoing. It was creating new content constantly. There are a lot of people… I mean, I know [there are] the single-player people, I’m one of those people – but there are a lot of people to whom The Elder Scrolls is now The Elder Scrolls Online. That’s their experience with it. That’s what they love. That’s where they got their Elder Scrolls gaming experience, and that’s probably what they want more of.
As previously reported, Kuhlmann also told the publication that he doesn’t expect a sequel to Starfield to materialise as the first game wasn’t successful enough. He also revealed that everyone during his time with Bethesda had expected the studio to move over to The Elder Scrolls VI after Fallout 4, but that didn’t happen as the team moved to Fallout 76 and Starfield.