Former Bethesda Tester Broke Fallout 4 With Extreme Testing

Colin McInerney's creative testing methods sent email blasts throughout the entire Zenimax Media company.

Mar. 16, 2026 at 12:21pm

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Former Bethesda game tester Colin McInerney once discovered so many crashes in Fallout 4 that the entire Zenimax Media organization received emails saying, "somebody found four crashes in a single morning." McInerney, now at developer Strange Scaffold, said his "approach shifted out of the publisher side and into the dev side" as he worked directly with Bethesda developers and found creative ways to break the game, like overloading the RAM on Xbox One.

Why it matters

This story highlights the importance of rigorous game testing and the creative approaches developers and testers must take to identify and fix critical bugs, even in major AAA titles from established studios. It also provides insight into the behind-the-scenes work that goes into shipping a polished, stable game.

The details

McInerney said he would "play hot and cold with the RAM" on Xbox One, since the console had 8GB of RAM and the game would crash if it exceeded that. He ended up giving himself "a billion experience" and equipping a powerful nuke launcher, then running around "super-nuking the entire wasteland" until he found four crashes in a single morning. This would trigger an email blast to the entire Zenimax Media company, including co-founder Robert Altman.

  • McInerney worked as a game tester at Bethesda during college.

The players

Colin McInerney

A former Bethesda game tester who now works at developer Strange Scaffold, known for his creative and extreme testing methods that broke Fallout 4.

Robert Altman

The co-founder of Zenimax Media, Bethesda's parent company, who would receive email blasts about McInerney's game-breaking discoveries.

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What they’re saying

“I was working with the Bethesda developers and learning s*** from them directly and working on weirder stuff.”

— Colin McInerney, Former Bethesda game tester

“I walked around with the unique nuke launcher that launched two, and then gave it the add-on that made each nuke launch 10 nukes. So I was running around super-nuking the entire wasteland and found four crashes in a single morning.”

— Colin McInerney, Former Bethesda game tester

“Back in those days, that would send out an email blast to the entire Zenimax Media company. So, like, [Bethesda co-founder] Robert Altman was getting emails that somebody found four crashes in a single morning.”

— Colin McInerney, Former Bethesda game tester

What’s next

McInerney reflected on the advancement of AI in gaming, saying "I would love to see an AI do my job. I am professionally stupid in a way that a machine could not even dream of."

The takeaway

This story highlights the importance of rigorous game testing and the creative approaches developers and testers must take to identify and fix critical bugs, even in major AAA titles from established studios. It provides a behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into shipping a polished, stable game.