One of the biggest surprises of the Bethesda E3 2018 press conference was the company’s official reveal of Starfield. While the reveal was enough to get fans excited for the game, the excitement was based on an incredibly brief teaser trailer and some vague comments from Bethesda’s top brass. It means that fans are still in the dark about what the game will offer them once it eventually releases.
Fans curious about Starfield will want to read these new comments from Bethesda Game Studios director and executive producer Todd Howard. During an interview with Geoff Keighley, Howard was quick to confirm what the game would not include, which at least rules out some possibilities for fans scratching their heads on what it may include. Specifically, Howard addressed the multiplayer side of the game and whether the space-based title would be big on online play.
Describing the game as the next “epic” single-player game from Bethesda, Howard said that Starfield would not be a shared-world, always-online game like Fallout 76. However, when asked by Keighley whether the game would be a strictly-single-player experience, Howard responded saying “whether it has some social connection, I don’t know, I don’t want to guess right now.” So even if the game is not a strictly solo, offline sort of experience, any online multiplayer (or multiplayer-adjacent) features will not be particularly expansive.
During the interview, Howard also confirmed that Starfield is in production and is also playable internally. In the update that Howard offered up on The Elder Scrolls 6 development, the game developer explained that production means a substantial amount of people are working on the game. As such, the Starfield development team could be looking at those potential social features and figuring out how to implement them at this moment.
One of the few things confirmed about the game is that it will be a “next-generation” title, suggesting that it may be released on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Two rather than the PS4 and Xbox One. While it’s not yet known what these consoles may offer players, they could provide plenty of new and interesting features for developers to work with. As a result, Starfield players could get to experience some innovative gameplay experiences, whether these are connected and social or not.
There may not be much to go on about Starfield right now, but Todd Howard and that brief trailer have given fans plenty to speculate on. It’s not known when Bethesda will provide the next look at the game either, meaning that these new, teasing comments will have to hold fans over until then.
Starfield is currently in development. A release date and platforms have not been confirmed.
