‘Skyrim’ Lead Designer Would Be “Shocked” If ‘Fallout’ TV Series Is Making Bethesda “Any Money That They Care About”
Though as popular as it is widely-acclaimed, former Bethesda dev Bruce Nesmith says that for all the success of Amazon’s Fallout TV series, it’s unlikely that the show is earning the studio anything resembling a genuine ‘profit’.
A core member of the studio’s The Elder Scrolls team up until his exit in 2021, a tenure which most notably saw him serve as the lead designer for its fifth entry Skyrim, Nesmith offered his thoughts on Fallout‘s metrics during a recent interview given to Press Box PR’s head of content Greg Johnson.
Amidst a larger conversation whose topics ranged from his outlook on The Elder Scrolls 6 to his philosophy towards crafting in-game AIs, Nesmith was at one point asked by his host for his overall opinion on Amazon’s live-action romp across the Wasteland.
Speaking from his experience as a lead quest designer on Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, he declared in turn, “I think it’s amazing.”
“I love the Fallout TV series. I actually think it’s getting better the longer they go on. They’re hitting their stride. For me, the first season had a couple of places where they were winking and nodding at the game. You give Dogmeat a stimpack and he instantly bounces up. That’s funny and that’s amusing but they’re getting into actual storytelling in that world and that environment now in the second season, and I think they’re really finding their mark. It’s still very much Fallout but they’re telling good stories of their own at the same time.”
Asked in follow-up as to whether he believed the “success of the Fallout TV series” would “lead to The Elder Scrolls getting its own show”, Nesmith first replied with the blunt declaration that “what you have to realize about things like the Fallout TV show is that they don’t make Bethesda money directly.”
“What you have to realize about things like the Fallout TV show is that they don’t make Bethesda money directly. I would be shocked if Bethesda is making any money that they care about really, not when you make literally billions of dollars on Skyrim. What you’re going to make by licensing the IP to this TV show is just peanuts.”
However, this is not to say such TV endeavors are all for naught, as Nesmith further asserted, “But what it does get you is attention. What it gets you is notoriety. It’s marketing. Do they really need marketing for Elder Scrolls 6?”
“I also think there’s something very special and different and unique about Fallout that lends itself to becoming a TV or movie experience whereas The Elder Scrolls is trying to be a standard kind of fantasy. That’s not as interesting, not in this day and age where you already have The Lord Of The Rings movies. We’ve got Game Of Thrones. You’d have to try to find something to lean into that would be special about it. “
“You look at Fallout, everything is special about it. There is nothing like the Fallout universe anywhere else in gaming. It’s very unique. That makes it easy to make a TV show and draw eyeballs as opposed to going into a fantasy world where I’ve got elves and people throwing spells around. You’d have to raise those stakes. There’s a dragon? I’ve seen dragons 20 times before. What are you giving to viewers that’s new? “
Putting a final stamp on his answer, Nesmith ultimately affirmed, “Different media have different needs and I don’t know that The Elder Scrolls would fit that media well.”
“Maybe a movie but I would struggle to see a TV show. That would just be for promotional purposes but they’re not going to make a ton of money off it.”
