Todd Howard Has Good News for Starfield Fans

Starfield

By Viraaj Bhatnagar

Published Jun 16, 2024

Thread 1

Starfield

Highlights

Starfield's future looks bright with plans for yearly expansions and handcrafted locations in the Shattered Space DLC.
Todd Howard's discussion of "Year 2" support for Starfield suggests that the game will receive support for the foreseeable future, which is great news for fans.
Before fans look toward the future, though, the Shattered Space DLC will bring Dead Space-like horror elements to Starfield later this year.

Starfield creative director Todd Howard has provided a host of encouraging updates on the game, mainly regarding its player count, future story expansions, and the upcoming Shattered Space DLC's design approach. Bethesda has been firing on all cylinders lately in regard to Starfield's post-launch support, with big updates, Creation Club content, and the aforementioned story DLC launching in fall 2024.

Starfield launched in September 2023 as Bethesda's first foray into the space exploration subgenre, allowing players to explore 1,000 planets scattered across 120 systems. While the ambition was sky-high, reviewers noted that the expansive RPG's underlying design felt somewhat dated, loading screens were aplenty, and performance was capped at 30fps on Xbox consoles. Thankfully, Starfield's jam-packed May 2024 update not only introduced a 60fps performance mode on Xbox Series X/S, but also big revamps for maps, ship decorations, difficulty settings, and more.

Starfield Shattered Space key art ritual circle

Starfield's Shattered Space DLC is More Dead Space Than Sci-Fi, and That's Good

Starfield's first major expansion, Shattered Space, appears to be leaning heavily into Dead Space-like horror, which may bode well for fans of both.

Bethesda didn't stop there, as it shadow-dropped another huge update for Starfield at the Xbox Games Showcase alongside the formal reveal of the Shattered Space DLC, which is slated to release later this year. Speaking in a recent interview with MrMattyPlays on YouTube, director Todd Howard confirmed more details about Shattered Space, stating that development on the expansion started between August and September 2023, but more importantly, it will be an entirely handcrafted location as opposed to the base game's reliance on procedural generation.

Bethesda is Planning More Yearly Expansions for Starfield

Howard also revealed that Bethesda is currently planning "Year 2" updates for Starfield, likely including a new story DLC. Additionally, the director confirmed that the team is looking to bolster Starfield with annual story expansions for as long as possible, before disclosing that over 14 million players have experienced the game. Bethesda last announced 13 million players for Starfield back in December 2023, which has now been topped as Starfield's player count has seen steady growth after the barrage of recent updates.

While the updated player numbers are a good indicator of Starfield's upswing, several fans will no doubt be more excited about the confirmation of tailor-made environments for Shattered Space. The procedural generation in Starfield was a double-edged sword as it offered a huge breadth of planets to explore, but according to many, lacked the depth expected from a full-fledged Bethesda RPG. Having been in development for around a year, Shattered Space will seemingly be a more focused experience that is poised to deliver on what Bethesda does best: world-building.