a.k.a. "Todd's Sweet Little Lies"

From the studio that brought you Skyrim, Skyrim: Legendary Edition, Skyrim: Special Edition, Skyrim VR, Skyrim for Nintendo Switch, Skyrim: Very Special Edition for Amazon Alexa, Skyrim: Anniversary Edition, and Skyrim for Switch 2...

We bring you a special episode tracing Bethesda's full arc from the golden age of Morrowind through the Fallout 76 dumpster fire, Starfield's 97.6% player decline, and the belated PS5 relaunch with the Free Lanes update that should have shipped in 2023. We dig into the Creation Engine debate, Todd Howard's pattern of overpromising, Microsoft's layoffs gutting ZeniMax, and TES VI sitting at 14+ years post-Skyrim with no release date. Meanwhile, Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 proved the audience Bethesda built isn't gone. It just has better options now.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 – Intro
• 1:47 – The Golden Age (1)
• 9:47 – The Cracks Appear (2)
• 18:07 – The Dumpster Fire (3)
• 32:37 – Starfield (4)
• 45:21 – Let Creation Engine Die… PLEASE (5)
• 55:37 – The Culture Problem (6)
• 1:04:22 – Can They Come Back? (7)
• 1:17:28 – Outro + Housekeeping

Show notes, links, and more available here: https://squaredcast.com/episode-5/

Uncensored episodes and bonus content available via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SquaredCast