Bethesda CEO and former World of Warcraft director clash over Starfield’s leaked title screen

A Bethesda executive has clashed with a former World of Warcraft champion over the latter’s comments on a leaked Starfield title screen.

Former World of Warcraft director Mark Kern tweeted a screenshot of the Starfield title screen on Saturday, and noted that not enough time was spent on it.

“A game’s splash screen can say a lot about how driven a team is and how proud they are of their work,” Kern wrote.

“Starfield’s splash screen displays either fast shipping deadlines by an overworked, enthusiastic team, or a team that just doesn’t care.”

He continued, “Splash screens are often done at the end of development. Teams are very busy making the base game. It’s very common for a splash screen to change completely once a game has shipped or in patch 0. Teams who take pride in that want to look good forward and often redo it before Start the game directly.

Kern’s comments drew criticism, particularly from Bethesda’s head of publishing, Pete Hines, who refuted Kern’s suggestion that the title screen meant the team either didn’t care or were too rushed to complete it.

“Or they designed whatever they wanted and that’s been our list for years and was one of the first things we settled on,” Haynes replied.

“Getting an opinion is one thing. To question one developer’s ‘care’ because you would have done it differently is very unprofessional coming from another ‘developer’.”

in Tweet now deleted (As I spotted it wccftech), Microsoft studio InXile made a sarcastic nod to the discussion by joking that it was moving all developer resources from the main game to focus on the splash screen.

Reportedly, “The campaign will run 45 minutes but the splash screen will be over 20 hours”.

Bethesda announced last week that Starfield has gone gold ahead of its release next month, stating that the game’s main development has been completed, and it’s ready to move into manufacturing.

Players can pre-load the game on Xbox Series X/S now, and on Steam on August 30, ahead of its September 6 release date.