Bethesda has spent well over a decade working on its proprietary Creation Engine, which has powered all of its games since Skyrim. However, following the recent releases of Starfield and the remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, some fans have questioned the studio’s commitment to this engine. In a new interview, former studio lead Dan Nanni explained that ditching Creation would impose significant costs on both the community and the development team.
As the games industry has increasingly converged on a small number of standard engines–Unreal Engine 5 chief among them–studios like Bethesda that maintain their own have become rare. Speaking to VideoGamer, Nanni explained that there are good reasons that Bethesda remains focused on Creation Engine. Chief among these is that Bethesda has built up an avid modding community, which has become particularly integral to the lifespan of Bethesda games and the studio’s strategy toward long-term support.
While moving to UE5 would likely benefit some modders who are experienced in creating mods for other games, the Bethesda mod scene as a whole would likely take a big hit, Nanni explained. „You have a mod community and knows how to use your engine, that has built things for decades on the system that you are launching with,“ he stated. „You have to ask yourself, is it worth losing all of that knowledge? What do you gain from it? And there is no right answer… You just have to make a choice.“