With The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 still on the distant horizon, Bethesda's plans for Starfield to join its "big 3" seem like a pipe dream

Oct. 9, 2024

Opinion| Do you fancy waiting 15 years for Starfield 2?

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Bethesda wants Starfield to be part of its “big three,” the third piece of the studio’s RPG identity, up there with The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It’s a noble aim - a studio primarily known as the beloved steward of other peoples' IP finally getting the chance to hold up its own work alongside those iconic games. But no matter what you might think ofStarfield, unless something changes dramatically at Bethesda, that aim feels like a pipe dream.

Pagliarulo’s being pretty clear - Starfield is not a one-and-done project, but something that will remain in Bethesda’s RPG rotation. Unfortunately, there are two things standing in the way of that lofty aim; Starfield’s reception among players, and the sheer amount of time it takes Bethesda to make its games.

Out of time

Bethesda produced four full-fledged single-player RPGs and multiple expansions in the decade before Skyrim. In the ten years afterwards, it made just one,Fallout 4. It kept the money coming in, of course - mobile games, VR ports, countless Skyrim re-releases. But a combination of naturally-lengthening development cycles and an inability to leave Skyrim’s success behind meant that the time between BGS’s major releases stretched to five years before Starfield took the baton on fromFallout 76.

Clearly, there is a solution. Bethesda could staff up far enough to become a two-game studio. It could invest in more New Vegas-style spin-offs, either internally or in partnership with other studios. It could make a Fallout Super Mutant dating sim if it really wanted to avoid keeping the franchise dormant for too long (especially because thelatest news on Fallout Season 2 isn’t super positive).

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But all of these solutions ignore another problem: Critically, Starfield hasn’t done that well. Initial reviews were good, but user scores hover far closer to ‘average’ than I can imagine Bethesda is happy with. And far from being the Phantom Liberty-shaped redemption arc thatCyberpunk 2077enjoyed,Shattered Spaceseems to have moved the needle in the opposite direction. Anecdotally, the passion that I see the Skyrim community continue to bring to that game every week is nowhere to be found when it comes to Starfield. Are even the most ardent fans still going to be waiting around for something genuinely new in a decade or two? Is Bethesda still going to be supporting the game as it tries to live up to the 20-year expectations for The Elder Scrolls 6? Is it even going to be making games in the same way as it does now?

As it stands, Starfield is not a game with a 15-year legacy. I hope that Shattered Space could be the first chapter in a lengthy turnaround. But Bethesda doesn’t have the resources it needs to make that happen while also bringing to life a game as huge as The Elder Scrolls 6 will undoubtedly be, especially not while also keeping the lights on with other projects and prepping for the future of Fallout. UnlessMicrosoftplans to give it an injection of cash large enough to double the size of the studio, I fear Starfield is set to fade into obscurity long before it can establish itself as the third piece of the Bethesda puzzle.

OurStarfield Shattered Space reviewpoints to interesting ideas, but not the future Bethesda might have wanted.

I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. 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.

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