Bethesda Former Dev Explains Why Loading Screens Are A Necessary Evil

Bethesda has quite a few fans behind its franchises. They just also released The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, one of the worst-kept secrets in the video game industry. Regardless, the game launched as a shadow-drop release, which gave fans, both veterans and newcomers, a reason to enjoy this RPG epic today. Now, looking back at the long history of Bethesda games, one veteran developer is chiming in on loading screens.

There’s more than a few loading screens in Bethesda games. In a time when loading games is incredibly fast, we’ve seen some developers push to avoid having any if possible. Otherwise, these loading screens are carefully hidden away to the point where players might not even realize the game is loading something in. But, looking back, Bruce Nesmith says that loading screens, however long or short they may be in Bethesda titles, are a necessary evil.

For those unaware, Bruce Nesmith is a former lead designer who has been with Bethesda for quite some time. He didn’t opt to leave the company until before Starfield was released. That said, Bruce did give an interview with Videogamer, where the publication asked about loading screens.

According to Bruce, loading screens is necessary. In particular, with a Bethesda game, you’ll have hitching without it. Loading all these places simultaneously is impossible. More importantly, Bruce wanted to clarify that this is not something developers seek out at Bethesda. There’s no real choice on the matter if they want to continue making detailed and graphically intense video games.

Everybody who complains about them assumes that it’s done because we’re lazy or we don’t want to follow the modern thinking on stuff. The reality is the Bethesda games are so detailed and so graphics intensive… you just cant have both present at the same time.

I can’t have the interiors of all these places loaded at the same time as the exteriors. That’s just not an option. And all the fancy tricks for streaming and loading and all that, you end up with hitching. So you’re actually better off stopping the game briefly, doing a loading screen and then continuing on. – Bruce Nesmith

Of course, loading screens now might not be as long as they were back in the day. Still, it does look like you won’t be without loading screens on Bethesda’s next big RPG release, The Elder Scrolls 6. Unfortunately, we’re still in the dark about this installment. Hopefully, when we finally get our hands on the game, we’ll spend a little less time on the loading screens and a little more time actively enjoying this adventure.