Having spent about 150 hours playingStarfieldwhen it came out, I genuinely felt good about the general state of the game for a while. Then,Shattered Spacecame out and fell flat on its face, and I decided to wait it out as Bethesda continued improving things. Alas, silence.
It’s early 2025, and Bethesda’s been awfully mum aboutStarfield. ThoughTodd Howard did stateahead ofShattered Space‘s release that more DLCs would be coming in 2025 and onwards, the fact of the matter is that the studio’s hype machine just kind of died down. Whether that’s becauseShattered Spacedidn’t review well at all, or because there’s simply nothing else to show off, the end result is much the same.
Here’s the thing: up untilShattered Space‘s release, Starfield was trucking along at a reasonably brisk pace. Updates were coming in at a very satisfying pace, and frankly,game-changing content additions such as REV-8were being dished out left and right. During this time,I playedStarfieldas a strange continuation of myDestinyexperience(as weird as that might sound), and the promise of things to come kept me entertained throughout.
Then,Shattered Spacefailed to deliver on the promise of a meaningful new expansion to the coreStarfieldgameplay experience, and players largely moved on to greener pastures. In my case,that wasSTALKER 2, which is admittedly a strange comparison to draw upon. Then cameKingdom Come: Deliverance 2with its oddlyMorrowind-like gameplay loop that I’m hoping Bethesda takes a good long look at forTES 6.
My point is that Starfield kind of missed its opportunity to truly make a mark on the gaming industry. Worse, Bethesda’s support for its long-awaited, highly anticipated flagship RPG is now virtually nonexistent. I’m not saying Bethesda’s not working on stuff in the background, of course. I’m sure we’ll get a few more content updates and, perhaps, an extra expansion pack down the line. But the hype behind this entire shtick is effectively gone, and I’m not sure if it can ever be regained at this point.
The timeline isn’t looking great, honestly: it’s been about 16 months sinceStarfieldwas released as of February 2025. In that time, we’ve received a huge amount of patches, a frankly astonishing number of paid mods, and a single substantial expansion pack of questionable quality. Compare that to, say,Fallout 4. In just over a year and a half,Fallout 4received six official DLCs, three of which were genuinely compelling expansion packs.
WithFallout 4, Bethesda was able and willing to maintain a solid and engaging content release schedule, which helped prop the game up over and over again as months went on. With Starfield, in comparison, it feels like Bethesda just gave up halfway through, and we’re all left wondering what on earth the next step for it will be.
The way things are, maybe it’s for the best if Bethesda really does just move on toFallout 5andThe Elder Scrolls 6. It’s a massive shame thatStarfieldis in the state it’s in, but I’ve come to believe patches and improvements just won’t be enough to prop it up to the same level as Bethesda’s other properties. There’s something important missing fromStarfield‘s core gameplay loop, and no type of fancy new content can compensate for that.
On the topic of Bethesda’s future releases, though, here’s some food for thought:Starfield‘s Creations ecosystem has overtaken the good old Nexus Mods platform in popularitya good long while ago. This might not have seemed like a notable problem a while back, but now we’re looking at a situation where a huge chunk ofStarfield‘s best mod content is locked behind in-game purchases. It’s not a great look, and it may well end up disposing of the game’s modding community in due time. I’m still hoping Bethesda will correct course with its next project, if not withStarfield, but given thatTodd Howard is now busier than ever, I’ve got my doubts.
Doubts, then, are all we’ve got since Bethesda doesn’t want to speak out about its plans forStarfield. In the best-case scenario, this is just a practical application of the things we learned fromlast year’s interview with Phil Spencer. There, Spencer said that Howard questioned whether the release of substantial content additions, such as the aforementioned REV-8, should’ve been tied to the DLC rather than a standalone update.
“I think some of the feedback on the expansion is: ‘We wanted more features.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, should we have waited to put buggies out,” Howard told Spencer.
So, Bethesda might be biding its time until it’s got a massive chunk ofStarfieldgoodness ready to launch. Will it matter, though? We’ll just have to wait and see, but it’s not looking great.
