Only 10% of the planets in Starfield will have life seeded on them, according to Bethesda game director Todd Howard. Starfield is an ambitious project and much like with every Todd Howard game Bethesda is making lofty promises ahead of the game's launch. For example, Howard and Bethesda have already said that Starfield will have over 1,000 planets for players to visit and explore. Just a fraction of those planets will have life, however, though Howard believes even desolate planets will be worth visiting.
Obviously, it's not realistic to expect Bethesda to handcraft over 1,000 worlds to explore in Starfield. It's already confirmed that these planets will be procedurally generated, with splashes of handcrafted content spread throughout. Howard has already said that Starfield will feature more handcrafted content than "Skyrim and Fallout 4 combined." Even planets with life will mostly be procedurally generated. This has led many to wonder if visiting planets will prove to be somewhat dull.
That's exactly the question that was posed to Todd Howard in an interview on the Kinda Funny Xcast, recently. Howard was asked if, on these 1,000+ procedurally-generated Starfield planets, are there really going to be things to do that are worth the player's time. Howard, as he is known to do, doesn't answer the question directly. He provides context that might lead eventual Starfield players to think about the question differently.
Howard explains that the way Bethesda thinks about it is that when a Starfield player enters a new system, there's a menu of things to do. With a scientifically-minded approach, not every system will be full of planets with life on them. As such, only 10% of planets will foster life. That only makes sense. That doesn't make the remaining 90% of planets not worth visiting, of course. But they're important in bringing Starfield to life, to provide a sense of scale to the universe, even if players decide they aren't worth visiting.
There will still be reasons to visit these desolate planets in Starfield. Howard explains that they'll have valuable resources to mine, and that there's a chance they'll have procedurally generated or maybe even hand-created locations to visit. He also mentions a Buzz Aldrin quote about the Moon, which he described as "magnificent desolation." In other words, there's beauty and something more profound to find on these lifeless planets, too.
As for whether Starfield players will genuinely find reasons to visit these desolate planets, most game players already know the answer to that question – probably not. Starfield is going to be packed with authored content. Starfield will have a massive campaign, lots of side-story content, and plenty else to keep players busy for dozens of hours. Most players probably won't explore much, so it's not surprising if Bethesda chose not to make those lifeless planets (or even most of the ones with life) more exciting to visit. Starfield players will be able to decide that for themselves, of course.
Starfield launches on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.