Bethesda king Todd Howard isn't a master of game design or programming, says Pete Hines, "but there is nobody that is better" at combining them: "Look around the industry. Who else?"

Fallout 4.

24 years at Bethesda taught former head of publishing Pete Hines what a great game looks like and who's capable of making one. According to the now-retired executive, it's Todd Howard.

Bethesda's current director and lord of its brand-defining franchises – Howard led Skyrim in 2011, directed Fallout 4 in 2015, among other accolades to chisel on a stone tablet – is not amazing at the technical aspects of his job. Hines tells Kirk McKeand in a new installment of the journalist's Firezide Chat series matter-of-factly, "He is not the best programmer in the world. He might not be the best designer in the world. But there is nobody that is better at all of that shit than Todd, in my opinion."