CVG: In his role as VP of PR and marketing at Bethesda, Pete Hines has helped ship some of the company's biggest games, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 3.
While the company remains coy on the inevitable announcement of Fallout 4, Bethesda will ship three titles this year: Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Evil Within and The Elder Scrolls Online. All are interesting for the way they seem to shirk conventional publishing wisdom in 2014: one is a single-player FPS, another is a survival horror game and the last is a subscription-based MMO.
In the interview, conducted during a recent Wolfenstein preview event in Sydney, we touch on Bethesda's willingness to pursue genres and models the rest of the industry is avoiding, the legacy of the Wolfenstein IP, and whether any new titles are set to be announced in 2014.
Pete Hines is retiring from Bethesda Softworks after 24 years.
Im glad he leaving. Bethesda has been terrible under his leadership. Redfall, Starfield, Fallout76 and the list goes on an on. His leadership style is outdated. Hopefully, MS bring someone in that knows what they are doing.
I will give you Fallout 76, but Redfall and Starfield's blame needs to fall somewhat on the terrible Xbox publishing team. With all their resources and supposed smarts...they fungled it.
@Mika He’s the communications guy - you can’t blame him for the quality of the product.
Maybe they can go to their earlier purchases for replacements . Like Rare devs , Gear devs or 343, one of the very few studios they built up and man they are great.
That could work ...if MS knew what they were doing themselves ...
But let's be real. Xbox was in charge of redfall and Starfield. They just don't know what a good game looks like.
I interviewed at Bethesda once, and while there were some very smart mid level team members, the upper ranks (EP/VP/Studio Head) were a total boys' club. The Madmen series ego in that lunch was stiffling.
I interviewed at Bethesda once, and while there were some very smart mid level team members, the upper ranks (EP/VP/Studio Head) were a total boys' club. The Madmen series ego in that lunch was stifling.
Pete Hines was against locking out the majority of their console playerbase (ps gamers). Probably disgusted at the hypocrisy of white knight Phil assuring PS gamers that they can still play COD. Acquisition goes through, Hines goes out.
Goodbye Pete.
i wonder if he was asked to leave.
im pretty sure not everyone was on board with the acquisition.
Pretty much everyone outside of Todd has made snide comments against the acquisition but money talks
The number one game development doctrine: It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
What risks were taken? Space travel? Entire planets ? Vehicles for planets? Smart AI? Don’t see any risks taken
Exactly, this game has 0 innovation. Everything has already been done before here, by Bethesda themselfs no less. Years back when Todd was showing off Skyrim going "see that mountain. you can go there" actually sounded impressive becouse you knew it ment you could literally walk straight up that mountain, no loading screens nothing! Now we have gone backwards.
He fits right in with MS with their overhyped catchphrase. Phil, Pete, and Todd Howard should host a talkshow because they’re clearly the experts on having interviews.
idk if it’s the difference between japan and west culture but Nintendo and Sony employees are practically radio silent compared to them..
The only risks taken were in the exploration lies told when advertising. This is basically Bethesda’s take on Mass Effect 1.
Exactly :D if this comment from Hines should have been an W, it totally wasn't. Telling your customers that you did not care enough before does not make you any better now. Only when your boss aka MS ass was on the line you cared. What an idiot.
Bethesda Softworks publishing head Pete Hines has reassured players that Arkane isn't giving up on Redfall, despite its lukewarm reception on launch earlier this year. In fact, he's confident it will be a good game people want to play on Game Pass ten years from now.
Redfall will likely not have the same level of long-term of support as Fallout 76. I doubt Redfall is popular enough to warrant several years of support and updates.
Yeah, I think Microsoft is done with that experiment. Honestly, I would be quite surprised if the 60fps patch comes at all anymore. It's such an afterthought at this point.
Why would you be surprised?
"Okay, we didn't get the start we wanted, but it's still a fun game… and we're going to keep working on it. We're going to do 60fps. We're going to get it to be a good game because we know, as a first-party studio, Game Pass lives forever."
This is directly from the article...he is telling you it's coming.
thesoftware370,
Isn't it obvious?
I don't believe anything they're saying. When I see it... If I see it... Then it happens.
It should have been a good game coming out the gate... I get that not all games are going to be winners. But, at the very least, make sure it's decent before releasing. Especially with a huge company like Bethesda backing it. Not to mention Arkane had a great reputation before this. It's one thing for an indie title not meeting expectations. It's another entirely when you're supposed to be backed by a huge player in the industry.
Starfield released without an FOV slider... I don't think listening to anyone from Bethesda is a good idea.
It’s already dead Jim. Just like Halo Infinite.
People have moved on to better games.
-"Just like Halo Infinite."
To say this with such confidence suggests you don't get called out enough on bad takes.
Halo Infinite is so forgettable that N4G has been flooded with articles saying Starfield is the first big Xbox exclusive this generation, the savior of Xbox, and the kickoff to Xbox’s exclusives. Hype meets reality.
-"Halo Infinite is dead though."
These responses have to either be delusional or deliberately disregarding the context to which I'm responding. Just to be clear, you understand Jin literally parallels Spedfall (that's still waiting on an 60fps patch) to a game who's just had a recent seasonal update and another (Season 5) scheduled for Oct, right? You can't even pretend like that's on "life support" compared to what Pete Hine's saying here with Redfall.
-"More people play Risk on Steam than Halo"
Even if that were true, which it's not ( https://steamdb.info/app/11... ), you're forgetting an entire online platform to make your argument, Poindexter. Do better.
-"Halo Infinite is so forgettable that N4G has been flooded with articles saying Starfield is the first big Xbox exclusive this generation, the savior of Xbox, and the kickoff to Xbox’s exclusives."
Just so I'm clear about this: 'gamez jurnalizm' (or at least a big collection of that field), the same group who've constantly been personified as unethical hype-mongers for big companies, hyping up another game as THE NEXT BIG THING is going to be your proof of this? How convenient.
Also, part of what you stated doesn't even diminish Infinite's status: "first big Xbox exclusive [of/for] this generation" works in Starfield's scenario since Infinite is a Xbox One, Series, & PC game. That language could just as easily be emphasizing a 9th-gen game from a cross-gen game.
-"Only the hardest of the hardcore still believe"
Although I still think you're diminishing its reach, at least you're added fairer context.
-"Cool beans that is some legendary orange glow level of cope. Well done"
And that is one of the most vapid responses I could've expected. Congrats.
Bad move. Fallout 76 is still awful and not at all beloved by the Fallout community.
But Fallout 76 has about 14 million players ..
Somebody is playing it, you can't possibly think that is bad.
Millions of people also bought the PS5 even though the system sucks. Quantity is not always quality
With the subscription model, I understand that you need to pay devs to work on content. That's only fair. But a subscription model that's more that say 4.99 a month is too much for most on a console. Simply because the age demographic is for consoles is less than PC. For the PC crowd, yeah 8.99 a month or something like that is acceptable because of the age demographic. There are more mature gamers on PC than on consoles. In most cases it's mom and dad who bought 'new-must-have-console' ; for little 'COD' Bobby.
In anycase, it's a fair point that already having to pay a subscription for online gaming on consoles means that you have to pay twice-monthly for console MMO's which is just not cool by any standard.
I'm super stoked for Wolfenstein because it's been a long time since we have had a promising-looking single-player only first person shooter that mixes in the old school "waves of enemies" gameplay. The last game I played that I enjoyed of this nature was Hard Reset on PC, even though many panned it because it was considered a bit rudimentary.
The sub model here is ludicrous! Unless the game was free out of the gate. $69+$14.99/month+live if that's your console....its far too much!
Especially since there are and will be more options for this game type.
And, just to be thorough...ESO doesn't have a hook that I can see. Why say would I get this over deep down on ps4? Or is this a last gen only? Then ds2 is far better choice!
This is a really good interview actually. It's rare to read anything from a publisher that doesn't
a) make your skin crawl
b) leave you concerned about the direction of the industry.
This guy comes across very well, and I will certainly subscribe to TESO if they can deliver on these plans.