Starfield (video game)

Starfield is set in an area that extends outward from the Solar System for approximately 50 light-years called The Settled Systems.[4] 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 the 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.[5] The game can be played in either first- or third-person perspectives.[6]

Starfield represents the first new intellectual property (IP) by Bethesda Game Studios in over twenty-five years, and has been described by director Todd Howard as "Skyrim in space".[7][5] The studio had been delving into space-themed games since as early as 1994, according to Howard: they had got the rights to make a game based on the Traveller role-playing system, but shortly lost those; their Delta V game in 1994 had been part of this Traveller license but had not been fully realized.[5] Their The 10th Planet was a cancelled space combat game to be published in October 1997 from which the atmosphere of Starfield was derived.[8] Howard stated they had rights to Star Trek in the 2000s and he pitched an idea for a role-playing game in that setting, but this failed to go forward.[5]

While Bethesda had wanted to do a science fiction game for some time and had strong ideas for its gameplay style, it took a while to cement the ideas behind Starfield that would distinguish it from other science fiction games already released. They came onto a theme which lead artist Istvan Pely dubbed as "NASA punk", that although set in humanity's future, the technology can be traced to origins in various NASA space missions.[5] Bethesda's team began crafting a fictional narrative of events by decade of the 300 years to the game's present, in order to ask "And now man is living amongst the stars: what does that mean?", according to Howard.[5]

Starfield’s concept had been in the studio's mind for some time prior to the trademarking of the name in 2013. According to Howard, "There were no other names [we considered]. It had to be 'Starfield'."[5] Howard said active development of the game had been ongoing since the release of Fallout 4 in late 2015.[9] By mid-2018, the game had moved out of pre-production, and was in a playable state.[9][10]

At Bethesda's E3 2018 press conference, Howard presented a short teaser trailer for the game.[11] An in-game teaser trailer was presented at the E3 2021 conference during the combined Microsoft-Bethesda press event, and a release date of November 11, 2022, on Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S as a console exclusive was announced.[12] In May 2022, Bethesda announced that the game's release would be delayed until the first half of 2023,[13] with Howard stating that the additional development time and support from engineers at Microsoft would make Starfield a better game.[14] On March 8, 2023, Bethesda announced that the game would be released on September 6, 2023.[15] A Microsoft-Bethesda press event, Starfield Direct, is scheduled for June 11, 2023 where Bethesda is expected to present more details about the game.[16]

• Official website