Starfield Leaked Start Screen Discourse Addressed by Bethesda’s Head of Publishing
Bethesda head of publishing Pete Hines has spoken out in response to remarks made by ex-Blizzard developer Mark Kern, who had previously leaked an image of Starfield’s start screen and criticized its design as "hasty" or the work of a team "that didn't care".
“The physiognomy of start screens," Kern in a Twitter post late last week. "The start screen of a game can reveal a lot about how rushed the team was and how much pride they took in their work. Starfield's start screen either shows hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn't care.”
Kern went on to note in a subsequent tweetthat, in his experience, such screens are created at “the very end of development”, and that it is common for start screens to change from their pre-launch state prior to a full release.
Or they designed what they wanted and that’s been our menu for years and was one of the first things we settled on. Having an opinion is one thing. Questioning out a developer’s “care” because you would have done it different is highly unprofessional coming from another “dev”
“It's quite common for the start screen to completely change once the game is shipping or on patch 0,” tweeted Kern. “Teams that take pride want to put a good face forward and will often redo these just prior to game going live.”
Bethesda’s head of publishing Pete Hines understandably took umbrage and refuted the remarks, replying in the comments to Kern's post with, “Or they designed what they wanted and that’s been our menu for years and was one of the first things we settled on.”
“Having an opinion is one thing,” continued the Bethesda veteran. “Questioning out a developer’s ‘care’ because you would have done it different is highly unprofessional coming from
Read more on ign.com
