Bethesda has insisted it’s dedicated to supporting Starfield, and confirmed at the very least one different story growth will launch following this 12 months’s Shattered House.
In an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Bethesda Recreation Studios’ Todd Howard mentioned the developer is aiming to launch an annual story growth for “hopefully a very very long time.”
Sci-fi RPG Starfield launched in September 2023 as Bethesda’s first model new mental property in years, and its first mainline single-player sport since Microsoft purchased father or mother firm ZeniMax Media in March 2021. IGN’s Starfield assessment returned a 7/10. We mentioned: “Starfield has a lot of forces working towards it, however finally the attract of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable fight make its gravitational pull troublesome to withstand.”
Howard mentioned Starfield has now seen 14 million gamers following its launch on PC, Xbox Sequence X and S and straight into Xbox subscription service Recreation Move, though Bethesda has but to announce a gross sales determine. The sport’s first story growth, Shattered House, launches later in 2024, with its debut trailer revealed throughout Microsoft’s latest Xbox Video games Showcase occasion.
Through the interview, MrMattyPlays requested Howard whether it is Bethesda’s intention to proceed to launch annual story expansions for Starfield. Howard replied: “Kind of, yeah. How lengthy that continues, hopefully a very very long time, however we’re planning for the one after this, so there can be one other one.”
As for Shattered House itself, Howard revealed fascinating particulars about its measurement and scope, likening it to the well-received Fallout 4 DLC Far Harbor.
“One of many issues we at all times favored about it from the get-go, however I don’t suppose individuals notice, is Shattered House, the majority of that growth pack, when you get to the town and the planet, it takes place there. It permits us to construct a panorama like we’d historically do and have the town and the hunt. And in order that story takes place there.
“Content material clever, we’re taking a look at what we did with Far Harbor on Fallout 4. That is a scope that works for our improvement in doing this annual story growth sort of factor. So actually enthusiastic about that, and it lets us do some issues the way in which we’d in earlier video games and provides individuals not fully that have as a result of it is nonetheless Starfield, however this new sort of alien world that you just’re in a position to discover and it takes place there.”
One widespread criticism of Starfield is that exploration is unfold too skinny throughout a thousand planets, a lot of which had been deemed barren as a results of procedural technology. That is in distinction to earlier Bethesda video games within the Elder Scrolls and Fallout collection, that are set in targeted areas full of hand-crafted cities and different factors of curiosity.
Howard mentioned Shattered House, which appears like a extra conventional Bethesda expertise, is just not essentially a response to that criticism, however the studio’s inside response to the sport it had made. “It wasn’t a response,” Howard insisted. “It was our personal response that we had as effectively.”
It’s a busy time for the 450-person Bethesda Recreation Studios, which at present operates 5 groups: Starfield; Elder Scrolls 6; Fallout 76; cell; and exterior improvement partnerships. It’s engaged on the aforementioned Elder Scrolls 6, ongoing content material for Fallout 76, numerous cell video games, updates for older video games, and, finally, the subsequent Fallout.
However will Starfield see a sequel? If it does materialize it could be a while earlier than we see something of it, with Elder Scrolls 6 anticipated no sooner than 2028 and one other Fallout sport set to observe.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.