Recently, former Bethesda lead artist Nate Purkeypile spoke with Esports Insider. He talked about the reasons for his departure from the company and more.
When Nate was asked, "Is there a risk of a brain drain at Bethesda, or is there a chance that a new generation of developers will steer Elder Scrolls and Fallout in a new direction?", he replied:
I hope the new employees do well, but it takes a long time to build a cohesive team. When I worked there, many workers stayed at the studio for a very long time - an average of 10 years or so. Some of the people I worked with back then are still there, but I think it's fair to say that a "brain drain" really did happen and many left. If you take a photo of the Skyrim team and see how many of those people have already left the studio - the difference is noticeable.
Purkeypile believes that the developers of TES VI and Fallout 5 are in a "hopeless situation" - fan expectations are high:
Yes [Bethesda is in a hopeless situation now] and that certainly influenced my decision to leave, because - how can you surpass Skyrim, one of the top ten games of all time? If they succeed - great! I sincerely hope it will be a great game. But even if it turns out to be as good as Skyrim, there will still be a lot of people throwing angry comments. I'm sure there will be death threats again. It's all very sad - it's a pity that it turned out that way..