Overview
- Kurt Kuhlmann, a longtime Elder Scrolls designer and Skyrim co-lead, says he left Bethesda in 2023 after more than two decades and now works at Tencent's Lightspeed LA.
- He says Todd Howard verbally told him after Skyrim that he would lead The Elder Scrolls 6, but when work ramped up years later he was offered only an “important role,” a claim not independently confirmed by Bethesda.
- Kuhlmann describes growing specialization and red tape that reduced hands-on design work, with communication breakdowns intensifying during Starfield as leads at different studios gave conflicting guidance.
- Before departing, he envisioned TES6 with an Empire Strikes Back–style arc where the Thalmor appear to prevail, a cliffhanger he now calls unworkable given decade-plus gaps between main entries.
- Bethesda continues to signal that TES6 is in active development with most of the studio focused on it, yet it remains a long way off without a public release window.