WhileBethesdais known to make sprawling, open-ended RPGs that you may literally play for years, it’s not without problems – which is understandable given the complexity of the studio’s games. One of the games that fit this bill is Betheda’s sci-fi RPG epic,Starfield.
Released in September 2023, Starfield isn’t just your Bethesda RPG with a deep character creation system, multi-layered romance options and the like, it also features over 1,000 planets spread across more than 100 star systems. Oh, and it’s an entirely new franchise as well, which adds a layer of complexity to the game’s development according to a former Bethesda developer.
In aninterview, former Bethesda Game Studios designer Bruce Nesmith, who worked on such notable games such asFallout 4,Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, andSkyrim, explains how Starfield being an entirely new IP has added to its development complexity.
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When we built Skyrim, we had the tremendous advantage of Oblivion, which had the tremendous advantage of Morrowind. All that stuff was there for us,” Nesmith explained. “All we had to do was continue to improve and add new stuff in. We didn’t have to start from the ground up. If we’d had to start from the ground up, that would have been another two or three years of development time.
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Who will you be?
Nesmith adds that given Starfield’s developers now have experience fixing the game’s issues, Starfield 2 is going to be “one hell of a game” since the devs will be able to add in new stuff without worrying about past problems.
I’m looking forward to Starfield 2. I think it’s going to be one hell of a game because it’s going to address a lot of the things people are saying, ‘We’re quite there. We’re missing a little bit.’ It will be able to take what’s in there right now and put in a lot of new stuff and fix a lot of those problems.
Nesmith does have a point. I mean, looking back at Oblivion and how Bethesda made a lot of things better with its sequel, Skyrim, there’s no reason Starfield 2 won’t benefit from that same level of familiarity and polish.
Note that Starfield 2 hasnotbeen announced by Bethesda, though it is a logical thing to assume that there will be a sequel. I mean, not only did Starfield make a ton of money, but Betheda’s track record shows how much the company loves to move forward with its franchises with direct sequels. Of course, howlongwe have to wait until we actuallyseeStarfield 2 is another story on its own, as the company takes its sweet, sweet time in developing these RPGS. Just using Skyrim as an example: the action-RPG was originally released back in 2011, and since then, has been ported to three generations of consoles (PS3/Xbox 360, PS4/Xbox One, PS5/Xbox Series X|S), and yet, here we are, 13 years later, and we don’t even have gameplay footage ofElder Scrolls VI.
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Somewhere among the stars.
While there’s no confirmation of Starfield’s sequel just yet, we do have DLC to tide us over such as the Shattered Space expansion released just last month. If you’re not sure whether it’s worth a purchase,go check out our review.
