Bethesda learned its lesson from DLC pop-ups in its older RPGs: 'We've gotten better at that'

Bethesda learned its lesson from DLC pop-ups in its older RPGs: ‘We’ve gotten better at that’ | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG The Free Lanes update will finally demolish Starfield’s most annoying loading screens, sort of RPG Starfield’s Terran Armada story DLC will let you recruit a robot who is ‘not evil’ but also ‘definitely not good’ RPG Bethesda steps in again to calm down hype around Starfield news next week, saying Todd Howard’s EA College Football 26 skills are his ‘only visionary power’ The Elder Scrolls Skyrim’s co-lead designer says Starfield’s main problem is that it never fully cohered as a game: ‘It was a releasable game, but it wasn’t the best’ RPG Todd Howard says there’s no Starfield 2.0 coming: The next big update is for people who already love Starfield, and if you don’t, ‘I don’t think this is going to change that’ Fallout Todd Howard says Bethesda really didn’t expect people to hate the way Fallout 3 ended with a full stop: ‘We thought this is Fallout, it’s great! People hated it!’ Fallout Fallout 76’s design director is still defending its original absence of NPCs: ‘At the beginning, we wanted it all to be player-driven’ The Elder Scrolls Skyrim lead designer says the next Elder Scrolls should look at how Baldur’s Gate 3 made things ‘meaningful,’ because ‘the gaming community has spoken’ The Elder Scrolls Bethesda veteran says less RPG complexity in the Elder Scrolls series is good, actually: ‘We got rid of attributes in Skyrim and you know who complained? Almost nobody’ Fallout Fallout’s original creators say that Fallout 3 and 4 aren’t quite what they would’ve done, but ‘sales say people love what they did’ RPG Obsidian was ‘surprised’ that Avowed players bounced off one of the RPG’s most important systems: ‘That frustration came through loud and clear’ Fallout A Steam glitch convinced some Fallout fans a New Vegas remaster was imminent, only to have the rug yanked out from under them: ‘Slowly turning into r/HalfLife’ RPG The best Elder Scrolls game that isn’t an Elder Scrolls game is getting a big patch in February and free DLC in March RPG Starfield’s composer says the game will become ‘legendary’, Todd Howard’s a ‘visionary’, and maybe you ‘were just not ready for it’ The Elder Scrolls Skyrim lead says the $100 videogame may not be the best idea: ‘I personally think game developers would be wise to not push the prices higher, but gamers are a special breed… they will pay for what they want’ Popular PC Gamer ClipsCrimson DesertMarathonBest PC gearGDCQuizzes Games RPG Starfield Bethesda learned its lesson from DLC pop-ups in its older RPGs: ‘We’ve gotten better at that’ News By Jody Macgregor published 22 March 2026 Starfield apparently won’t be repeating the mistake. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Playing Bethesda’s open world RPGs when they were new, each time you installed a new DLC you’d get a convenient notification as soon as you booted up your last save telling you how to start the quest or where to buy your horse armor or whatever. Replaying them after the inevitable GOTY or Ultimate edition made for a more jarring experience. You step out of the tutorial sewer or shelter and you’re bombarded with pop-ups, one after another.Istvan Pely, who has art credits on all of the Bethesda Fallout games as well as the Elder Scrolls from Morrowind to Skyrim, recently told GamesRadar that Fallout 3’s GOTY edition in particular taught them this wasn’t the best experience.”One of the things we learned, more than a decade ago,” he said, “when you look at the Game of the Year Edition of Fallout 3—we would make these DLCs, and then we put out a Game of the Year Edition—and the Game of the Year Edition would start with all of these messages [telling you] the DLCs had unlocked. We’ve gotten better at that.”Article continues below You may like The Free Lanes update will finally demolish Starfield’s most annoying loading screens, sort of Starfield’s Terran Armada story DLC will let you recruit a robot who is ‘not evil’ but also ‘definitely not good’ Bethesda steps in again to calm down hype around Starfield news next week, saying Todd Howard’s EA College Football 26 skills are his ‘only visionary power’ Pely is n