Former Bethesda Softworks advertising and marketing lead Pete Hines has opened up about how he noticed the Fallout writer get “broken and damaged aside” earlier than saying his retirement in 2023.
The now-retired gaming trade veteran touched on why he selected to step away from Bethesda throughout a wide-ranging interview with Firezide Chat. When reminiscing about his decades-long journey via the launch of every thing from Doom to The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Hines shared his emotions about modifications inside the firm and what finally drove him to depart.
Hines had beforehand acknowledged that it made sense for him to retire round the launch of the long-awaited Starfield and reiterated that time in the new interview. Though transferring on meant leaving colleagues like Bethesda’s Todd Howard and Erin Losi, there was greater than easy timing influencing his determination.
“I simply hit a degree of sure, [Bethesda] wants me, and I’m powerless to do what I believe wants to be accomplished to run this place correctly, to shield these folks, to preserve what we labored so onerous to create, which is an extremely environment friendly, nicely run online game developer and writer,” he defined.
“And once I was unable to do what I believed my job ought to contain in persevering with to have that place be, you already know, if not the most effective writer in the sport trade, it was approach the f**okay up there. And once I could not shield it, and I noticed the way it was getting broken and damaged aside and admittedly mistreated, abused, no matter phrase you need to use, I stated I’m not going to sit right here and watch this occur proper in entrance of me.”
Hines continued, saying, “This isn’t once I wished it to finish or how I wished it to finish.” Nevertheless, he stated making an attempt to preserve his position at Bethesda took a toll on his psychological well being, including that he ultimately made the determination to depart someday in 2022, the yr earlier than Starfield launched.
“Each time Todd delayed Starfield, I believed, f**okay, I am right here one other eight months,” he stated. “And Todd was the just one who knew. It is another excuse I like that man. He confirmed up for me once I was simply at my wit’s finish and received me via that, and received me out of there in a approach that I nonetheless retained my sanity.”
Hines avoided talking intimately about any particular person occasion, individual, or determination that triggered him to contemplate exiting in the first place. The timeline main to the Hines’ retirement contains Microsoft’s announcement that it supposed to purchase Bethesda dad or mum firm ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in 2020 earlier than finishing the acquisition in 2021. Emails revealed in 2023 additionally noticed the former advertising and marketing lead categorical confusion over Microsoft’s determination to make Bethesda titles Xbox unique whereas pushing video games like Name of Obligation to different platforms.
“Yeah, that was the worst f**king half,” Hines continued in the Firezide Chat interview. “It was to be a part of a spot that I genuinely was a fan of and folks there I genuinely held in excessive regard and esteem, after which to get there and see the way it really labored.
“To speak is one thing, proper? However I am very a lot about what’s the comply with up to that? Do you imply what you say? Or are you simply saying s**t that sounds good after which as quickly as you allow this room that is utterly forgotten?”
He admitted that Bethesda might not have at all times been in a position to do what it stated it was going to do. Nevertheless, he feels it at least at all times tried, including, “We’re going to do what we are saying and say what we do and be real and be genuine.”
“And honestly, I nonetheless suppose Bethesda is simply a part of one thing that’s not genuine and isn’t real,” he continued. “And that should not be a shock to you.”
Hines has been vocal about modifications at Bethesda in the years since his retirement. In September 2025, he remembered the early days of his 24-year run at the sport writer, arguing that it’s “not the similar” anymore. The identical interview noticed him discussing the way it got here up with the identify of 2017’s Prey, the launch of Fallout 76, and why subscription companies like Sport Cross want builders to survive.
Photograph by Christian Petersen/Getty Pictures.
Michael Cripe is a contract author with IGN. He is finest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be certain to give him a comply with on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).