Todd Howard explains in a podcast that Starfield is intentionally designed to be played over the years and supplemented with new content.
On September 25, 2023, Starfield’s head Todd Howard was a guest on the “AIAS Game Makers Notebook Podcast” and spoke there with Ted Price, the CEO of Insomniac Games (Spyro, Ratches & Clank, Marvel’s Spider-Man).
Howard is Game Director and Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios. During the podcast, he discussed that the role-playing game was developed so that players can play it long-term (via YouTube).
Howard explains that Bethesda learned from Skyrim and Fallout
What exactly did Howard say about the longevity of Starfield? First, Howard spoke about the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The role-playing game was already a really big game at its release, but looking at it today, it has become much larger due to the many mods and add-ons and is still being played 12 years later.
Subsequently, Howard elaborates that players tend to get accustomed to a game over time and then want to improve it and add new things.
As developers, Bethesda wants the same, which is why the studio gathers feedback and has a list of things that Starfield should receive in the future. However, you can’t just dive into the whole list at once; you have to “choose your battles” and make sure everything runs “stably” (via YouTube).
Howard explains that Starfield is deliberately designed to be played for a long time and to pose the question of how Starfield will look in three or four years.
Bethesda has learned from earlier games like Skyrim and Fallout, Howard describes, and therefore has made sure during the development of Starfield to build the game in such a way that it can be continuously supplied with content and played for years.
They have created a foundation with Starfield that they can build upon.
What else does Howard say in the podcast? The conversation with Ted Price provides some interesting insights into the development of Starfield and the thought processes that Bethesda had during development.
Howard also explained in the podcast that Bethesda intentionally made hostile ships in Starfield “really dumb”, even though it would have been very easy to make them very smart.
He also spoke about players’ expectations and the RPG genre. He believes that players’ expectations of a role-playing game have changed “drastically” because elements of the genre are being incorporated into many games, causing genres to blend.
