A former Bethesda developer who worked on many titles, including "Starfield," said that the studio should switch to using Unreal Engine 5 in order to avoid various technical limitations.
The situation comes as "Starfield" was heavily criticized due to constant loading screens whenever players fast-travel. It was recently revealed that these issues were actually added in the game's later development period.
Starfield's Loading Screens
Former Lead Artist at Bethesda Nate Purkeypile said that it was most likely due to the limit of the game's development engine, known as Creation Engine. He argued that the initial cost of going to Unreal Engine 5 may be high, even for Bethesda.
However, he said that in the long run, the company's investment in the game engine would pay off because everything would be streamlined. He added that it would also help so that "things would end up being better" for the studio, according to 80lv.
The former Bethesda developer parted ways with the studio in 2021 in order to start his own studio, Just Purkey Games. He said in an interview last year that as an indie developer, Unreal Engine was a solid choice to use.
He argued that it has high efficiency, which lets him shift more of his focus on game development rather than building and maintaining technology.
Purkeypile said that building both a tech and a game was like laying the train tracks for a train that you are already riding, that is on fire.
Switching to Unreal Engine
Purkeypile noted that "Starfield" could have existed as a great game without those long loading screens. He added that some of these were not there when he was still part of the team that was working on the game, Games Radar said.
One particular example that the former Bethesda developer gave was the city of Neon in "Starfield." This was an area that he had worked on early in the game's development stages before separating with Bethesda.
He said that the loading screens were gating stuff off for performance in Neon, adding that this city was not the only culprit that forced Bethesda to add the loading screens.
Purkeypile said that for Atlantis, they were added so that players do not have to sit for an entire train ride.
Purkeypile also noted that other studios, such as "The Witcher" creator CD Projekt Red, have chosen to switch to Unreal Engine. However, he did admit that changing game engines requires a lot of work on top of the finances needed, according to Dual Shockers.
