Starfield: Made for Wanderers

This post was started almost a year ago now. Just as it was going to be posted, Bethesda announced a delay to the Starfield launch date. It's been sitting in the drafts folder since then. Today, with confirmation that Starfield will release in September this year, it eventually gets to see the light of MEWs front page.

Starfield (now) officially arrives exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on 6 September 2023. It will be available to all Game Pass subscribers to play on Day One.

Starfield is the first new universe in over 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4.

In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.

In 2330, you join Constellation, the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy. Venture through the stars and get to know a memorable cast of characters on a quest to answer humanity’s greatest question—what is out there?

Announced at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, Starfield was initially scheduled to release exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on 11 November 2022.

Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom. Harnessing the power of next-gen technology and built on the all-new Creation Engine 2, Starfield takes you on a journey through space as you strive to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.

Starfield is set in an area that extends outward from the Solar System for approximately 50 light-years called The Settled Systems. Around the year 2310, the two largest factions in the game, the United Colonies and Freestar Collective, engaged in a conflict called the Colony War.

The game takes place 20 years after that war, with the major factions enjoying an uneasy peace. The player assumes the role of a customizable character who is a member of Constellation, an organization of space explorers. The game will be playable in either first- or third-person perspectives.

"It's like 'Skyrim' in space."

That’s how Bethesda Game Studios Executive Producer Todd Howard described the upcoming game in an interview with The Washington Post.

Because of major technological leaps since 'Skyrim', the last Elder Scrolls installment from 2011, Howard said 'Starfield' will be much more robust than that game. How big could it get? Bethesda Managing Director Ashley Cheng compared the game to “Star Wars.”

“For me, ‘Starfield’ is the Han Solo simulator. Get in a ship, explore the galaxy, do fun stuff,” said Cheng, who’s been with the company for 21 years.

“We struggled at first at finding ‘Starfield’s’ identity," Howard said. "We knew the style of game we wanted. But there’s so much science fiction, we didn’t have this existing franchise feel. We had to create that from scratch. What do the spaceships look like? What’s the tech level? What do people believe? What year is it really set in?”

A detailed timeline was created that included the history of “what happens every decade” and it was decided that the game would take place “300-ish years in the future," Howard said. "And now man is living amongst the stars: what does that mean?”

To help in the journey, there are a variety of robots. While there is nothing like Star Wars’s C3PO, Howard said there is one named Vasco (a nod to explorer Vasco da Gama) who is admonished (via a crew member’s wall scrawl) in the trailer because the robot forgot to procure a beverage called Tranquilitea. That name is yet another nod to NASA: Tranquility Base which was the moon site where the Apollo 11 astronauts first landed and walked.

Following the recent in-engine teaser trailer, Bethesda Game Studios released a behind-the-scenes video that shed light on their processes and inspirations for Starfield. In that video, we gave a brief look at three very distinct Starfield locations – the United Colonies capital city, New Atlantis; the pleasure city of Neon; and the capital of the Freestar Collective, Akila. Design Director Emil Pagliarulo adds a little more insight into these three locales you can expect to visit.

Locations 1 - New Atlantis: https://youtu.be/KoZAAebhnxs
Locations 2 - Neon: https://youtu.be/E2io6xFD1VY
Locations 3 - Akila: https://youtu.be/F_wrs9NlEfI

Find out (a little) more on the official website: Bethesda - Starfield