Wow, this is a bit of a bombshell! Head of Publishing at Bethesda, Pete Hines, is officially leaving the company following the huge launch of Starfield. Yep, Hines has been a prominent public figure at Bethesda for more than two decades, but the exec has decided it's time to retire just two and a half years after the company was bought out by Microsoft.
To sum things up, Hines felt that this was a good time to part ways with Bethesda after launching the first new BGS IP in decades - that being Starfield of course. Here's his statement in full, posted to Twitter:
This surprising news lands during an extremely busy time for Xbox. The team has just announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard after almost two years of regulatory stalemate, with Microsoft now working on integrating the Call of Duty owner into its Xbox operations. The firm will now have to seek out a new Head of Publishing at Bethesda as well, following Pete Hines' departure.
Are you as surprised as us to see this news drop? Let us know what you think down below.
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24 years is a long time at the top of the industry. Thanks for helping to make some of the most memorable games in that timeframe Pete, and enjoy your retirement. Well deserved.
Not one time does he say Microsoft or Xbox.
I think he’s really upset with them letting COD remaining multi platform but not any of Bethesda titles.
I still think these acquisitions are good for all companies to be competitive. I wouldn’t let Microsoft buy another big publisher again. I’d still let Microsoft acquire companies just not big publishers.
Sony did start this, whether you agree or not.
@Deshalu I'm not sure he's got that strong feelings about multi-platform, given only 2 Bethesda games haven't hit PlayStation so far and they still go to PC - despite his comment in the emails.
Do agree with the rest of your comment though.
I do wonder if in time Microsoft plan to centralise the publishing and marketing rather than having it spread across all 3 publishers (Xbox, Bethesda and ABK) - it makes sense as it stops them stepping on each other's toes and saves money that can be better spent on better promoting.
So it could be the eventual idea of that that's why he doesn't mention Microsoft or Xbox - or that he avoids them to try and stop the Sony console warriors using his resignation lol...
It's sad to see him go but he has given so much to the industry. And I think he was just waiting to wrap incredible launch of Starfield and now he can retire his head held high. Congrats on this amazing endeavor. May he live a long and prosperous life.
@Widey85 the FTC court case showed emails of him being upset about Bethesda titles, not being on PlayStation. Pete questioned why they would allow Activision’s COD to remain multi platform, but none of there titles.
I would buy four small companies first ioi, Crytek, Gearbox, and crystal dynamics. Then after that push my luck with Sega
@Deshalu Why would he mention Microsoft or Xbox. He's spent 24 years with Bethesda and just over 2 under Microsoft. Bethesda are also at arms length within the Xbox structure and mostly manage themselves, with some oversight and support, most of his day-to-day business would still be with Bethesda.
TLDR: No need to imply that something is amiss.
@Deshalu Yeah I just wonder if he'd be upset enough to quit over it - particularly given Bethesda have always worked closely with Microsoft / Xbox.
I read it more as frustration that it restricts his job slightly so he can't get the sky-high sales figures he might get if he were able to include PlayStation too.
He'd have had to have been closely involved in getting the exclusivity deals with PlayStation for Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo though I guess, so if he does prefer to work with Sony then best of luck to him going elsewhere I guess...
oblivion, skyrim, fallout 3 and starfield....thank you for the wonderful games pete - youre a solid gold star 🙂
Best of luck to him. He went out on a high note with Starfield. It does make sense to retire now as Bethesda doesn't have any immediate releases to manage.
@Deshalu I'm aware of those e-mails you're talking about, but the way I see it, he wasn't frustrated about CoD remaining multiplatform and Bethesda games being exclusive. He was frustrated because he wasn't communicated about that at the time, and as someone whose job involve communicating with the public and the media, he didn't like being kept in the dark.
@Deshalu there's been ample time now to see the Starfield numbers. I would guess he's fairly upset over the disparity to past launches. Pete got incredibly salty the last few months prior to launch. Being forced to testify didn't help his demeanor.
Good luck to he/him.
Going from Head of 'everything' at Bethesda Publishing, to having to answer to MS and the Standards they 'expect' as he now has to answer to them, can't be easy. Yes he may 'leave' on a relative high now Starfield is out but Redfall wasn't great at launch.
Bethesda and MS Publishing are basically the 'same' now anyway. Bethesda is only a branch of MS...
I hope he enjoys his retirement. He's earnt it and has helped shape some of my favourite titles in bethusdas earlier days.
@Deshalu I think your right, that he had some issues since the take over, but I doubt thats the main motivator.
When I was a dev, I wanted the entire world to be able to see and experience what I helped create. I can understand if he had some frustration seeing a large group of previous players not getting a chance to enjoy the work. But as I approach my own retirement, I also recognise the desire to spend your twighlight years enoying the time you have left with those you care for the most, and I suspect this is his main reason.
Wonder if he had enough of the snake oil salesman known as, Todd Howard?
Why does everyone have to speculate what they really think the reason is?
The guy is retiring not going to another company. So his intentions are probably financial and career accomplishment based rather than dissatisfaction. Pretty hard to top everything he has done at Bethesda.
Good for him. Although I can't imagine that he's retiring completely. He's only 54. Unless he just doesn't want to work anymore. Certainly has enough money I'm sure.
If he's just a publisher not a big loss really.
Thank god for that, Tod Howard next
@Moonglow I'm willing to bet Starfield would have remained in the top 10 charts for at a least a couple of months if it wasn't on GP and was on PS5 as well and Pete knows this, yeah he's retiring from all this for family but i bet the way MS has treated Bethesda was the tipping point.
I love Starfield but the fact its pretty much forgotten already shows how the Netflix module is damaging to well everything.
@Deshalu
So Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop aren't on PlayStation? Also Xbox is allowed to have exclusive games, I'm sure if Sony came to the table and shared a few of theirs with Microsoft they would be willing to bring a few of theirs to PlayStation
@ZuneTattooGuy DeathLoop and GhostWire are only on PlayStation because there was an existing contract before Zenimax was bought. Plus I think you read my statement wrong, I’m for Xbox making everything exclusive.
Pete Hines was upset, this was a fact. There’s interviews, emails, and a court case where Pete says he was upset by keeping games exclusive.
Pete retirement speech reads like his journey might be with another company or starting his own.
@Moonglow You mean the Zelda what will more GOTY awards then Starfield will get nominations? You mean the Zelda that has stupid amount of sales? The Zelda that is still high in the Switch charts?
Of course Pete cares about sales because bad sales impacts his studios. Also the game hasn't sold 10M as far as i know it just had 10M players but that 10M is a BS number because MS do what Netflix does and counts players who only spent like 10mins only with it. We don't actually know well its sold but the fact it left the top 10 pretty quick is not a good sign. Gamepass is killing sales.
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