Skyrim Co-Lead Reveals Todd Howard Personally Pushed Starfield Over TES6: 'Guess What, Team? We're Making This Space Game'

For more than a decade, Elder Scrolls fans have waited for the next chapter in Bethesda's beloved fantasy saga, and many have blamed the agonizing delay on Starfield, the ambitious space RPG that consumed the studio's resources and attention. Now, a 20-year Bethesda veteran who helped create both Skyrim and Oblivion has revealed the internal story behind that decision. It was not a team consensus. It was not a market-driven choice. It was, according to Kurt Kuhlmann, Todd Howard's personal vision, announced to the studio only after it had already been approved by leadership. Kuhlmann's account offers a rare glimpse into one of gaming's most consequential creative decisions, and raises uncomfortable questions about whether Bethesda's most beloved franchise was sacrificed to one man's ambition.

Kuhlmann is not a disinterested observer in this story. He joined Bethesda in 1996, wrote Oblivion's main questline, and served as co-lead designer on Skyrim. By any reasonable measure, he was a natural candidate for the lead designer role on The Elder Scrolls 6. He left the studio in 2023, and reports describe an acrimonious split arising from being denied that position. Readers should weigh his account with that context in mind, though his story is corroborated across multiple independent outlets and aligns with other former employees' descriptions of Howard's outsized influence.

The Announcement That Shocked Bethesda

To understand why Starfield came as such a surprise, you first need to understand Bethesda's rhythm. Following the release of Skyrim in 2011 and Fallout 4 in 2015, the studio had settled into an alternating cadence between its two flagship franchises. Kuhlmann described this pattern as a "nice" pace that helped reduce burnout among the team. Everyone, he said, expected The Elder Scrolls 6 to be the next project directly after Fallout 4.

That expectation was shattered in a single meeting. Kuhlmann recalls Howard gathering the team and delivering the news after the decision had already been finalized. According to Kuhlmann, Howard told them: "No, we're doing Starfield. I got that approved. It's going to be a new IP... It's going to be the greatest space RPG ever made."

The framing was telling. This was not a collaborative brainstorming session or a team-wide vote. As Kuhlmann characterized it, "It was very much, 'Guess what, team? We're making this space game.'" The message was clear: the decision had been made, and the team's role was to execute it, not to question it.

Why Starfield Leapt Ahead of TES6

Kuhlmann does not mince words about where his own preferences lay. He states plainly that he would have much rather made The Elder Scrolls 6 than Fallout 76 and Starfield, and he believes that sentiment was shared by the majority of the studio. During Fallout 4's development, the team had reportedly reached an early internal consensus on TES6's setting, though Kuhlmann declined to disclose which province or region had been selected.

So how did Starfield manage to leapfrog the project most of the studio wanted to build? Kuhlmann theorizes that Fallout 4's massive commercial success gave Howard the leverage he needed to pitch Starfield to ZeniMax leadership instead of delivering the sequel fans were clamoring for. The game sold over 12 million copies in its first day and went on to become one of the studio's best-selling titles, cementing Howard's reputation as a visionary whose gambles tended to pay off.

This pattern of Howard as an "accidental force of nature" is corroborated by other former employees. Character artist Dennis Mejillones previously compared Howard to George Lucas, noting that "a lot of people were afraid to say no to Todd." The comparison is apt. Like Lucas, Howard is a creator whose early successes earned him near-total creative autonomy, for better and for worse. It also helps explain how a single executive's preference could override the apparent consensus of an entire studio.

The decision had cascading consequences. Fallout 76, which was originally meant to be handled by BattleCry Studios (now Bethesda Austin), ended up pulling the main team away from early Starfield production. This compounded delays and stretched the studio's resources even thinner, further postponing any work on TES6.

The Cost of Starfield: TES6's Long Wait

The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced at E3 2018 with a brief teaser that showed little more than a distant coastline and a title card. Fans parsed every frame for clues about the setting. But behind the scenes, the game was barely in development. It only entered active production in 2023, following Starfield's launch.

The math is sobering. Skyrim released in 2011. If TES6 arrives in 2026 or later, as current projections suggest, the gap between mainline Elder Scrolls titles will exceed 15 years. For context, the gap between Oblivion (2006) and Skyrim (2011) was just five years.

Kuhlmann's account explains why. The studio's resources were diverted not just to Starfield but also to Fallout 76, a live-service experiment that launched to mixed reception and required years of post-release support to salvage. Starfield itself faced multiple delays, and its 2023 launch was met with a lukewarm response relative to Bethesda's previous single-player epics. While the game sold well and attracted a substantial player base, it failed to achieve the critical consensus of Skyrim or Fallout 4, with reviewers and players citing dated design elements and a fragmented narrative experience. The question of whether the pivot was ultimately worth the cost to the Elder Scrolls franchise remains open, and Starfield's reception has done little to settle it.

A Departure Colored by Ambition

Kuhlmann's credibility on this subject is substantial, but so is his investment in it. In an earlier interview, he framed his exit around "communication breakdowns" at the studio and expressed his desire for TES6 "to be The Empire Strikes Back," a reference to the sequel that many consider superior to its predecessor. These two explanations are complementary rather than contradictory. The denial of the TES6 lead role and the broader communication issues both contributed to his departure.

It is worth acknowledging that a designer passed over for a coveted role might be inclined to cast the decision-maker in an unflattering light. However, his account is consistent across multiple independent outlets and aligns with other former employees' descriptions of Howard's influence. No official response from Bethesda or ZeniMax regarding Kuhlmann's claims has been located.

What This Means for The Elder Scrolls 6

Kuhlmann's account raises fundamental questions about Bethesda's creative decision-making process. Is it healthy for a single visionary's pull to override team consensus, even when that vision produced landmark games like Skyrim and Fallout 3? The George Lucas comparison cuts both ways. Visionary leadership can produce masterpieces, but it can also create creative monocultures where dissent is suppressed and bad ideas go unchallenged.

For fans, the revelation adds crucial context to TES6's decade-long development. The game was not delayed by technical challenges or shifting market forces. It was delayed by an internal pivot that most of the studio reportedly did not want, driven by one man's conviction that a new IP was worth the risk.

With Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax in 2021, The Elder Scrolls 6 is expected to launch as a PC and Xbox exclusive, carrying the weight of a platform's exclusive lineup on its shoulders. The pressure on Bethesda to deliver has never been higher. Starfield was supposed to be the studio's triumphant return to original IP, a showcase for what its signature formula could achieve in a new setting. Its mixed reception has only intensified scrutiny on the game that was pushed aside to make room for it.

The deeper question is whether Bethesda's creative model remains sustainable under its new corporate parent. Microsoft has largely allowed ZeniMax studios to operate with autonomy, but the commercial stakes of TES6, a guaranteed blockbuster for the Xbox ecosystem, may invite more oversight than Bethesda has ever experienced. Whether that oversight tempers Howard's singular vision or simply adds another layer of pressure remains to be seen.

The Elder Scrolls 6 will eventually arrive, and it will almost certainly sell millions of copies regardless of its quality. But Kuhlmann's account reframes its long journey to release not as a matter of technical ambition or market strategy, but as the product of one man's singular vision. Whether that vision proves brilliant or misguided may ultimately depend on whether the space gamble that delayed Tamriel's next chapter was worth the cost. The answer may not come until we finally set foot in whatever province Bethesda has been building, and can judge for ourselves whether the wait was justified.