In an end-of-year Starfield update, Bethesda talks new gameplay and ship options, a "major update in February," and the RPG's first story expansion

Starfield weapons — (Image credit: Bethesda)

In what looks like its last Starfield post for the year, Bethesda's committed to big changes for the RPG in 2024, revisiting promised quality-of-life features and doubling down on new gameplay options ahead of the RPG's first confirmed expansion, Shattered Space.

"As the year draws to a close, we want to say thank you from the whole team for all the time you've spent in Starfield and all the passion you have for the game," a post from the official Bethesda Reddit account reads. "In 2024, we'll be updating roughly every six weeks starting with our next major update in February. Here's some of what we have planned on top of regular bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements:

City maps
New ways to travel
New ways to customize your ships
New gameplay options to further adjust difficulty
Official mod support with the launch of Creations
Our first story expansion, Shattered Space

"More info on all of the above will be coming soon but for now, we hope you all have a relaxing holiday season and we can't wait to continue this journey with you in the new year," the post concludes.

Much of this lines up with recent comments promising everything "from city maps, to mod support, to all-new ways of traveling" for 2024. When these and other features will be delivered, and what all this February update will contain, remains to be seen, but it's encouraging to hear that this is all coming down the pipe. The quality-of-life changes apparently in the works alongside these bigger beats could also end up improving the experience considerably.

"New ways to customize your ships" is arguably the biggest surprise in this post. Shattered Space is the big ticket winner, but we already knew it was a thing and we still know virtually nothing about it apart from it being story-facing. Meanwhile, Starfield ship customization is a community favorite and has already advanced a fair bit since launch, so it'll be interesting to see where Bethesda takes it from here.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer is hoping for a Skyrim-grade, long-tail legacy for Starfield, and Bethesda's expressed plans to support it for years.

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.