A former Bethesda artist says Todd Howard needed more pushback
Dennis Mejillones said some coworkers were too wary of telling Howard no, which he felt could hurt the studio's decision-making.
A former Bethesda artist has offered a blunt view of Todd Howard’s leadership style, saying the studio head was sometimes surrounded by people who did not want to challenge him.
In a 2025 interview with Kiwi Talkz, former Bethesda senior artist Dennis Mejillones said Howard was not perfect and that he had no problem speaking up when he thought something was off. Mejillones worked at Bethesda from 2009 to 2021, giving him a long stretch of firsthand experience with Howard and the studio’s internal rhythm.
Because Todd Howard is basically a celebrity game dev who is well respected, he unfortunately has a problem with "yes men" at times.
His friend and former colleague Dennis Mejillones puts it well "A lot of people are afraid to say no to Todd and that hurt him."
As more of the… pic.twitter.com/rjoJl3Pfju
— Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly (@kiwitalkz) April 2, 2026
“[Howard] is a phenomenal person, and is he perfect? No. Does he call all the shots perfectly? No,” Mejillones said. “I can’t tell you how many times I told Todd, like, ‘hey man, that’s not a good idea. That’s bad. That’s not good.’ Or, that I kinda kept my mouth shut, like, ‘oh, I don’t think that’s so great.’ Typically though, I would communicate if I felt really strongly about it.”
He added that during his time there, “a lot of people were afraid to say no to Todd,” and that, in his view, “hurt him.”
The comment lands alongside a different recent take from another Howard interview, where former Skyrim co-lead designer Kurt Kuhlmann argued that Starfield suffered when Howard was pulled away from it too often. Taken together, the two views paint a pretty clear picture of how much Bethesda’s future projects can hinge on the people around Howard and how openly they are willing to challenge him.
That tension will matter again when The Elder Scrolls 6 eventually arrives, since Bethesda’s most closely watched projects tend to carry Howard’s imprint whether fans like that or not.
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