To push a release for a game you need to package it. It’s one thing to have no more ci/cd, you could technically build, package, and deploy on a workstation. But without source you can’t even do that because the build system is part of the source code. A game is a few hundred gigs of pure data and it needs to be packed to make it playable.
Eventually you will want to change the lighting or fix a high severity bug. You need the source to recompile or repackage.
This is Bethesda we’re talking about, I don’t think they’d worry about fixing bugs
The script source code is packaged with the game though. You can see the entire game’s implementation through the GECK and XEdit pretty much.
To push a release for a game you need to package it. It’s one thing to have no more ci/cd, you could technically build, package, and deploy on a workstation. But without source you can’t even do that because the build system is part of the source code. A game is a few hundred gigs of pure data and it needs to be packed to make it playable.