Bethesda Boss Fires Back at Viral Starfield Criticism

Bethesda's Pete Hines doesn't appreciate flimsy claims that have been levied at Starfield.

By Logan Moore

Bethesda publishing boss Pete Hines has fired back at recent criticism tied to Starfield that has gained quite a bit of traction on social media. At this point in time, Starfield is a little more than 10 days away from its launch, which will prove to be a big one for Xbox. And while the jury is still out when it comes to Starfield's quality, Hines is shooting down the notion that the game was "rushed" given one element that is already in the wild. 

In a message on Twitter, former Blizzard developer Mark Kern posted a leaked image of Starfield's main menu screen that he claimed was put together hastily given its minimal design. Kern said that start screens are usually one of the final things completed with any video game and can often be indicative of the "pride" that teams put into their games. When talking about Starfield's menu, Kern went on to suggest that those at Bethesda Game Studios were either "overworked" or "didn't care" based on the look of the RPG's boot-up screen. This assertion led to a response from Hines, who shot down many of Kern's claims. 

"Or they designed what they wanted and that's been our menu for years and was one of the first things we settled on," Hines said. "Having an opinion is one thing. Questioning out a developer's 'care' because you would have done it different is highly unprofessional coming from another 'dev'."

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As a whole, Kern's assumptions associated with the Starfield menu screen were a bit odd, especially since the design and layout of the menu matches what has been seen in previous titles from Bethesda Game Studios. Projects such as The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout 4 are both very similar in style to what has been shown with Starfield. With this in mind, the widespread pushback that Kern received in reply to this string of posts is pretty understandable. 

Starfield is set to release at the start of next month on September 6, but will also be available beginning on September 1 in early access. When Bethesda's highly-anticipated open-world game does launch, it will be playable across Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. Prior to that time, stay tuned to our upcoming coverage here on ComicBook.com as we'll have an official review of Starfield to share in the near future. 

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