Todd Howard reveals Starfield details, but says it's still a long way off

News
By published

"It's going to be a while until people hear about it"

Starfield
(Image credit: via https://imgur.com/a/GSWTkHn)

Don't expect a proper reveal of Starfield any time soon. 

Todd Howard says "it's going to be a while" before Bethesda has more to share about their upcoming space RPG Starfield. Speaking at the Develop: Brighton conference, the studio veteran revealed a few tidbits about the project, but suggested fans shouldn't hold their breath for a Starfield release date anytime soon.

Starfield was revealed with a teaser trailer during E3 2018, but Howard says that that decision was made because Bethesda was currently working on two very different games - the multiplayer-only Fallout 76 and the mobile-focused The Elder Scrolls: Blades. "We wanted to make sure our fans knew 'here are the things coming up'. We knew at the time that these things were going to be a ways off, but it still felt better to engage and say 'here's what we're making'."

Some people at Bethesda think the studio should show its work off more, but Howard says his preferred approach is that "when we show it [we can] really be able to show what the final product feels like and looks like, and we're closer to release so that we're 100% confident in 'here it is, here's what it does, and here's when you can play it'." He also points out that "preparing trailers and demos and assets, they take time away from development [...] and I'd rather just spend all that time focusing on the game."

That said, Howard did reveal some information when it came to the development of Starfield. He confirmed that the game will contain some procedurally-generated content, suggesting that Bethesda had moved away from that approach for a while, but that "we've been coming back over time. The stuff we're doing now, we're pushing procedural generation further than we have in a very long time." He also hinted again at Bethesda's upcoming engine overhaul, suggesting that while "it's taken us longer than we would have like, it's going to power what we're doing with Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, and I think when people see the results they'll be hopefully as happy as we are."

While you wait for Starfield (and the next Elder Scrolls game) check out some of these other upcoming games.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.