Bethesda 'Intentionally' Made Starfield to Be Played for a 'Long Time'

Summary

Todd Howard, the director ofStarfield, says that the game was designed with the intention that it be played for years. Fans of Bethesda games won’t be too surprised to hear that Bethesda knows its games remain popular for years after they launch. It remains a popular meme thatThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis ported to every platform it can be, well over a decade past its launch. Bethesda wantsStarfieldto be likeSkyrim, in that sense.

While it’s true that Bethesda games have always been played for years after their release, it has undeniably moved further in that direction over the past 20 years. Part of that is because it takes so long for Bethesda to make games. It was just four years betweenThe Elder Scrolls 3: MorrowindandThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. It waseight years between the release ofFallout 4andStarfield. Bethesda fans have stuck with older games due in part to a lack of new ones.

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The most substantive reason that Bethesda fans stick with older games, however, is because there’s just so much to do. That is something that Bethesda values in its games, and something it focused on in the design ofStarfield. During a recent podcast, Todd Howard said thatStarfieldwas “intentionally” designed to be played for a long time. And by long time, he doesn’t mean a100-200 hour playthrough and then New Game Plus. He wants it to be played for years.

Howard goes on to describe howBethesda looked atStarfield’s futureincrementally. He says the team asked whatStarfieldwould look like in three months, six months, a year, or even five years. That’s just the reality of making a Bethesda game. Players will be playingStarfieldfor years, whether Bethesda designs the game to be played that way or not. They might as well lean into it.

While Howard doesn’t explicitly point to anything inStarfieldas having been designed to keep players coming back year by year, it’s easy to imagine what he’s talking about.Starfield’s scale is massive, with over 1,000 planets and more than 100 star systems. There are rich systems for building outposts and spaceships. And don’t forget thatofficialStarfieldmod support is planned for 2024.

WhetherStarfieldcontinues to be played in a dozen years is yet to be proven, but wouldn’t be surprising if true.Starfieldhas been critically well-received, but perhaps not at the same level asSkyrim. Fans likely hope that Bethesda will be able tofinishThe Elder Scrolls 6in fewer than eight years, too. Still, there are plenty of planets to explore inStarfield’s sky in the meantime.

Starfieldis available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.