Starfield Director Says it’s “Intentionally Made to be Played for a Long Time”

Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield launched last month and received praise from critics (check out our review) and players. However, with more than 1000 planets, extensive ship-building, and several other activities, the space-faring RPG’s journey is only beginning.

On the recent Game Maker’s Notebook Podcast with Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price, director Todd Howard talked about how Bethesda is taking the long view with Starfield. Much like in June 2021, following the game’s announcement, he reiterated that it’s “intentionally made to be played for a long time.”

“One of the things we’ve learned from our previous games, from Skyrim, from Fallout, is that people want to play them for a very long time,” Howard said. “So Starfield, I would say, was the most intentional, going into it, that this is a game people are going to play for a long time. How do we build it such, that it is allowing that in a way that feels natural – and if people have played the game and finished the main quest, you can see that.

“But it’s also one where, okay, what does Starfield look like in three months? What does it look like in six months, a year, two years, three years, four years, five years? We’ve learned that’s going to happen, so let’s be ready for it, make the most of it, and embrace it. That’s both what we do here and with our modding community. We’ve learned so much there. Giving ourselves a good base of a game to build upon for everybody.”

Of course, while Starfield already has mods, full mod support is coming next year. In the meantime, Bethesda is working on other requested features like supporting Ultrawide displays, DLSS, a field of view slider, and a menu to calibrate HDR. There will also be a button to allow players to eat food instead of storing and then consuming it.

DLC is also on the way, with access to the first upcoming expansion, Shattered Space, included in the Premium Edition. Starfield is available for Xbox Series X/S and PC, along with Game Pass, and has over 10 million players.