For months, Starfield fans have been hoping for big news: there have been rumors of a Cyberpunk 2.0-style update. Now Bethesda’s lead developer Todd Howard is finally making an announcement.
When Starfield was released in 2023, many Bethesda fans were disappointed: instead of the usual richly detailed worlds, there were empty planets with randomly scattered outposts. Many of the game systems seemed half-baked, and there was hardly anything to do in space.
To date, this has not changed much, despite several updates from Bethesda that added various improvements. Fans therefore pinned their hopes on rumors of a Starfield 2.0
, which some hoped would bring fundamental improvements.
Now, Todd Howard from Bethesda has finally spoken about the plans for Starfield on the YouTube channel Kinda Funny Games.
Those who like Starfield will love it
First of all, Howard refutes the rumors about the scope of the update:
It’s not Starfield 2.0. To manage expectations a little: if you like Starfield, we think you’ll love it. […] But if Starfield didn’t click with you from the start, if you didn’t get into it or found it boring, then [the update] won’t fundamentally change that.
So there’s a big update coming for Starfield, possibly along with the mysterious Terran Armada DLC, but it’s unlikely to fundamentally change any of the game’s systems. So what’s in the update? We can piece together a few bits of information:
- Todd Howard talks about how the way we
use space
will change. This may involve reducing loading screens or a new travel speed for flying between planets. - The game is not supposed to change in an isolated way, but in its meta. Howard may mean that something about the gameplay loop will change, or perhaps there is a connection to the new features in space.
- Procedurally generated exploration is to be improved. Howard does not elaborate on how, but it may be that we will no longer discover the same place multiple times in a row.
- Last summer, Bethesda already mentioned that future updates would
make space travel more rewarding
and addnew game systems
.
To sum up: The new update seems to focus primarily on space, with hot candidates for changes being the reduction of loading screens and new content in space. The only question that remains is when. Todd Howard has an answer for that too, namely soon
. Great.
But it may really be only a few weeks until an announcement: Rumors were already circulating about an showcase in March, where the PS5 release will also be announced. Now that the second season of the Fallout series is out of the way, it would be a good time for Bethesda to turn its attention back to Starfield. After all, Todd Howard’s appearance on Kinda Funny Games is no coincidence, but is also intended to pique the curiosity of fans.
