Skyrim's design lead says if you play Morrowind today, you will 'cringe': 'The reality of playing Morrowind would not stand the test of time'

The PC Gamer review of Morrowind scored it an 83 back in 2002, which as the disclaimer at the top will inform you, is the lowest score a mainline Elder Scrolls game has got from the UK mag to date. That may stir feelings of confusion and unrest in you as it does "the Morrowind enjoyers of the current PC Gamer team," but Skyrim's own design lead Bruce Nesmith reckons fan demand for a remake has more to do with fuzzy nostalgia than it does the actual experience of playing Morrowind.

As Nesmith told Press Box PR in an interview, "go back and play Morrowind and tell me that’s the game you want to play again. We all have these fond memories of things that were pivotal moments in our gaming fantasy histories that we absolutely move but you go back and play a 20 year old game and you will cringe."

As gaming hot takes go, I'd put that somewhere between blazing inferno and white dwarf, but he didn't stop there. He noted that even Oblivion had "cringe moments" here and there—some of which he claims responsibility for, as he worked on Oblivion as a senior designer—adding that "the further back you go, the more that's going to be an issue. The reality of playing Morrowind would not stand the test of time, in my opinion."

That isn't to say Nesmith thinks a remake isn't in the cards ever, but he foresees a few major hurdles. For one, he's not sure Bethesda has the source code anymore (he left in 2021), and wondered in the interview whether the studio could even compile it if they did have it. He also said that there'd probably be more appeal in "something new."

"You can include the giant crab palace and all of that stuff but make it new and avoid all the things that would not have survived the test of time," he told Press Box PR.

I have no allegiance to Morrowind the way certain staffers at PC Gamer might, but I do have infinite affection for its arguably even less streamlined predecessor, Daggerfall, a game I first played via Daggerfall Unity in 2021 (a full quarter-century after its initial release). It and many of the best games I've ever played required I get over the initial cringe induced by archaic design. If anything, I'd rather see a remake of Battlespire or Redguard. You know, the games that weren't ever good and might actually need one?

Regardless, I think Nesmith and I would also disagree on Daggerfall. When asked in the above interview if he thought Arena or Daggerfall could get a remake, he said, "I think Morrowind is as far back as you can go."