Todd Howard has genuinely been thinking about making a Starfield-style space RPG for 25 years

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A 27-year-old Howard loved the sound of a spacefaring RPG

Starfield
(Image credit: Bethesda)

It turns out Todd Howard has been thinking about making a spacefaring RPG for roughly 25 years.

Now, Todd Howard has been at Bethesda for an incredibly long time, longer than some members of this website's staff have been alive, in fact. Reddit users have managed to unearth a forum conversation from all the way back in 1997 between Todd Howard and other users, and it contains quite the intriguing detail.

"Now a space RPG..that would be something," writes 1997's version of Todd Howard on the internet forum, as archived by Google. A 27-year-old Todd Howard, who would've been fresh off making the likes of Skynet and The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall in 1996, was already thinking about an RPG in space.

Enter, 26 years later, Starfield. Well, that's not strictly true - Starfield was in the conceptual phases prior to its official trademarking by Bethesda and Zenimax back in 2013, meaning Howard was thinking about making an RPG set in space roughly a decade and a half before Starfield was conceptualized. 

We've all heard before about how Starfield is Bethesda's first new game world in 25 years, but we never could've really guessed that Todd Howard's been especially keen on making such a spacefaring game for all that time.

There's some absolute gold in the archived forums on Google, including Howard laying out the foundations for Redguard that would come to define RPGs throughout the coming decades. You're right Todd, we do want "3D characters,
with real personalities" in our video games.

Now we're just a few months out from Howard finally getting to release an RPG set in space. Starfield is set for launch on September 6 around the world on PC and Xbox Series X/S, but you can play it five days earlier than everyone else if you're willing to shell out for the Digital Premium Edition.

Head over to our upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for a look ahead at all the other console exclusives lined up for launch this year.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.