Starfield was 'now or never' for Bethesda according to Todd Howard

Starfield
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Starfield is an all-new project for a studio that already had a lot on its plate, but there's a practical reason why Bethesda decided its next destination would be outer space.

Bethesda Game Studios boss Todd Howard talked about his studio's slate of recent and upcoming projects in a new interview with IGN, where he admitted that he can't say the lengthy gap between Skyrim and its direct followup "is a good thing." However, when it came time for Bethesda to settle on its next project, the developers feared it might never again have this good of an opportunity to move in a different direction.

"We wanted to do something else for a long time, and play in a new universe. Well, if not now - I'm going back in time, we started right after Fallout 4, so 2015 - if not now, when?" Howard asked. "It felt like if we didn't do it then, the 'when' could be 'never.' So we felt pretty good with where Elder Scrolls was as a franchise - particularly with Elder Scrolls Online - that, hey, now is the time to do Starfield."

Granted, "everything takes longer than we would like,' Howard said, but the studio wants to make sure it gets this foray into a new universe right. Its little corner of the universe is called the Settled Systems, by the way - get used to the name because you'll be spending a lot of time there.

Just as importantly, it looks like Starfield may give you Mandalorian style weapon mounts for your sci-fi armor. 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Read more
The Elder Scrolls 6 screenshot of the landscape show in the announcement teaser
Upcoming Bethesda games: every game currently in the works
Elder Scrolls 6
The Elder Scrolls 6: Everything we know so far
Starfield space combat, with a distant vessel exploding
Former Starfield dev says the space RPG "could have existed without those" surplus loading screens, with many added after he left production
Starfield
10 best games like Starfield to get swept up in when you're ready to leave Constellation
Big In 2025: Exodus
Former BioWare devs' new RPG Exodus will potentially age your loved ones while you're away: "Decisions a player makes will compound over a significant period"
A trackers alliance agent cocks her head to the side as she tries to entice you to join the organisation
Former Starfield lead says "people are fatigued" with huge games, and "I'm sorry" because "part of what happened is the success of games like Skyrim and Fallout 4"
Latest in RPG
Ghost of Tsushima screenshot of Jin interacting with a fox
Assassin's Creed Shadows' Knowledge system sounds like it's tapping into what I loved most about Ghost of Tsushima
Baldur's Gate 3 pale vampire elf Astarion, a man with curly white hair and red eyes
The Baldur's Gate 3-arization of Dungeons & Dragons continues as Astarion gets 2 official mentions in the new source books
Visions of Mana
6 months after the Visions of Mana team was closed down the day after releasing its JRPG remake, one of its leads has started a new studio: "Management needs to protect creators"
Key art for Solasta 2.
A single D&D spell in Solasta 2's Steam Next Fest demo proved to me that not every RPG needs to be Baldur's Gate 3
Avowed
The rarest Avowed ending has only been seen by 0.2% of all the RPG's players, but to get it you'll have to commit to a path of death and destruction
After 24 years, classic RPG Gothic returns as a top game in Steam Next Fest with a remake demo that has almost 5,000 reviews
Latest in News
The King is Watching
This roguelike city-builder casts you as a benevolent Lord of the Rings villain, and its Steam Next Fest demo accidentally consumed my entire evening
Monster Hunter Wilds trailer screenshot showing a young woman with long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail smiling slightly, pumping her left fist in the air
Monster Hunter Wilds' worst feature is its "ridiculously poorly built UI," according to fans of the new action RPG – but there's already "a mod that fixes that"
Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich in In the Lost Lands
After the successes of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich talk pressures of starring in the first George R.R. Martin movie
Spider-Man: No Way Home
This is why fans think Spider-Man will become the MCU's most important character after Avengers: Doomsday
Monster Hunter Wilds
New Monster Hunter Wilds patch fixes a bunch of progress-blocking bugs, but there's still a network error bug playing havoc with SOS signals
3d beans doing tasks with one of them dead
The Among Us 3D demo did so well that you can still download it even though Steam Next Fest has ended