They say all things, great and small, always come to an end. For Bethesda's senior vice president for publishing, Pete Hines, the end for him comes now. This comes just a month after the successful launch of the company’s biggest intellectual property so far, the open-world role-playing game Starfield.
This is because Mr. Hines is finally retiring from his post in Bethesda after 24 years. The senior VP broke the news on X, formerly Twitter, with a screenshot of his resignation letter to the company.
In his letter, Mr. Hines explained that his decision to retire finally was not easy or quick. However, he felt that the incredibly successful launch of Starfield was the ideal capstone for what he described as “an amazing career.”
“It feels like the time is right,” he explained.
However, Mr. Hines said that he is not certainly saying goodbye to Bethesda or the gaming community in general. The formerly senior VP of publishing at Bethesda Softworks promises that he’ll still play a part in the gaming community that his employer had been a big part of.
Lastly, Mr. Hines expressed excitement at experiencing the next phase of what he describes as an adventure, starting with what they, probably referring to Bethesda, will come up next after Starfield.
Bethesda also came up with a reply and posted it on the official company X account. In its post, Bethesda paid tribute to what it described as three values that Mr. Hines nurtured in the company: authenticity, integrity, and passion.
Starfield’s launch figures were nothing short of impressive. The early access period pulled in 1 million users, while 5 million more joined during the launch on September 6, bringing the total to an ominous 6 million players on launch day.
Three weeks later, Bethesda announced that Starfield already has 10 million users playing the game on its exclusive platforms. This was followed by an announcement that Starfield remains the third most-played game on Xbox.