Pete Hines Opens Up About His Bethesda Exit: “I Couldn’t Sit Here and Watch”

Pete Hines was head of publishing at Bethesda Softworks for 24 years, serving as the company’s public face for journalists and fans. He joined in October 1999, rose to become the second most recognizable person at the studio behind Todd Howard, and retired in October 2023, one month after the launch of Starfield. In his retirement message at the time, he cited Starfield’s release as the natural endpoint of his career. In a new interview with Kirk McKeand on the April 10 episode of Firezide Chat Gaming, he revealed the full story behind his departure, and it is far less tidy than the version he offered in 2023.

Hines did not want to leave. He was staying, he said, because the place still needed him. But he reached a point where he was powerless to do what he believed needed to be done to run the studio properly, protect the people there, and maintain what they had built together.

“And when I was unable to do what I thought my job should involve in continuing to have that place be, you know, if not the most efficient publisher in the game industry, it was way the fuck up there,” Hines told McKeand. “And when I couldn’t protect it, and I saw how it was getting damaged and broken apart and frankly mistreated, abused, whatever word you want to use, I said I am not going to sit here and watch this happen right in front of me.”

He never says the word “Microsoft” during the interview. The connection, however, is not difficult to draw. Microsoft acquired Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, for $7.5 billion, announcing the deal in 2020 and completing it in 2021. Hines described the pairing as a “perfect fit” in Bethesda’s official announcement of the acquisition. Three years later, he was gone. Within days of his departure, Microsoft reorganized its Xbox studio structure to bring Bethesda and other ZeniMax subsidiaries under more direct corporate control. Emails surfaced in 2023 also showed Hines expressing confusion over Microsoft’s decision to make Bethesda titles Xbox exclusives while pushing games like Call of Duty to other platforms.

His decision to leave was made in 2022, a full year before Starfield shipped. He was waiting for the game to launch before stepping away, but every time Howard delayed the release, Hines found himself trapped for additional months in a situation he was desperate to exit. His mental health during those final years had become, in his own words, deplorable. He gave two weeks’ notice when he finally left.

Only Howard knew what was coming. Hines credits the game director with getting him through those final months and out of the company in a way that preserved his sanity. Howard showed up for him when he was at his wit’s end, Hines said, and it is one of the reasons he loves the man.

Hines told McKeand the hardest part was watching something he genuinely admired get hollowed out. He joined Bethesda as a fan of the company, holding its people in high regard. Then he saw how the new structure actually worked. Bethesda’s original operating philosophy, he said, was to do what they said, say what they did, and be genuine and authentic. He acknowledged the studio did not always live up to it, but the intention was always there.

“And truthfully, I still think Bethesda is just part of something that is not authentic and is not genuine,” Hines said. “And that shouldn’t be a surprise to you.”

He described the ending as something he did not choose. It was not when he wanted it to end or how he wanted it to end, but it was no longer up to him. He had done everything he could. At a certain point, he said, he simply could not continue.

Hines spent the interview speaking warmly about the people he left behind. Erin Losi, the first person he ever hired at Bethesda, took over his role as head of Global Marketing and Communications. He described her as like a little sister to him and said he misses her every day. He tries to give her professional space, conscious of having been her boss, but losing daily contact with her and the rest of the team he built from scratch was the single hardest thing about walking away. Harder, he said, than not getting to work on The Elder Scrolls 6. There will always be an Elder Scrolls he is not part of. He cannot be there forever. But not seeing the people is what hit him most.

On Howard, Hines was direct: he is one of his best friends, and their 24-year working relationship was the most important of his career. Beyond their personal bond, Hines defended Howard and the entire Bethesda Game Studios team against criticism, saying people need to put respect on their name for leaning into the kind of game complexity everyone else in the industry avoids. He pointed out that Bethesda’s games let players stack quests freely, wander anywhere, and interact with the world in ways no other studio attempts, and said Howard deserves credit not just for creativity but for how hard he works and the standard he sets.

In September 2025, Hines spoke publicly about Bethesda again, remembering the early days of his tenure and arguing that it is not the same anymore.

The full Firezide Chat interview covers considerably more ground and is worth watching in its entirety.