You can turn your Starfield ship into Optimus Prime, confirmed

A Starfield ship
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Bethesda has shown just how far Starfield ship customization options go by building none other than Optimus Prime themselves, certainly proving the developer's point.

As part of a special Starfield Direct following on from Xbox Games Showcase, Bethesda has taken the chance to show off heaps about what the upcoming space game has to offer. A big part of that is ship customization. 

Once you buy a ship, you upgrade it both internally with a crew or externally with new compartments to suit your needs - a smaller ship makes for a grand fighter, though you'll need more storage to run cargo. 

All of this, however, all changes how your ship looks, especially as you can change colour options, too. Not afraid to do what we're all going to do, Bethesda got a tad silly with it, building a big ol' mech that looks none other like Optimus Prime. Bravo.

The good news regarding combat for your mecha ship is that Bethesda has taken gameplay queues from some of the best Star Wars games. It's not a simple case for directing where to go, but piloting your ship means considering how you manage your power systems, which means deciding where or not to redirect energy between various ship subsystems. For example, directing more power to the engines makes you faster, or you put that towards shields to become sturdier.

Starfield is due to release on September 6, though you can get five days of early access through the premium edition. 

Check out all the other Starfield Direct live updates here.

PRODUCTS
Deputy News Editor

Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.

Read more
Starfield
10 best games like Starfield to get swept up in when you're ready to leave Constellation
Starfield
Bethesda breaks silence as Starfield fans hope for an update: "We have a lot of exciting things planned for the game this year"
Exodus
Former Mass Effect veterans' new RPG Exodus puts us in the shoes of an organization that has "inspiration from the Jedi"
A screenshot from Exodus' debut trailer
Mass Effect veterans have another Normandy-type "major hub" in their new space RPG Exodus, but this time it's an entire city
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"
Alsynes attacks an enemy with a laser halberd in Mecha Break's Mashmak mode
"For mechas, this will be a breakthrough": Mecha Break impresses across its chaotic 6v6 action and revamped Mashmak extraction mode
Latest in RPG
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
The Blood of Dawnwalker: A screenshot of the vampire Brencis holding up a crown during the trailer for the upcoming game.
The Witcher 3 devs created a Jekyll & Hyde-style character for their new vampire RPG "because nobody yet has done that"
The Witcher 4 screenshot with Ciri using sword and sorcery to fight an ancient monster
The Witcher 4 devs explain how Ciri's fighting style will differ from Geralt's: "He's nimble, but he feels like a block...she's liquid"
Kai and Giatta battle Xaurip in Avowed
I get why Obsidian doesn't like The Elder Scrolls comparisons, but Avowed is the first RPG to have its hooks in me this deep since Skyrim took over my life 14 years ago
Mass Effect 3
BioWare lead proves he's onto us while celebrating Mass Effect 3's birthday, clarifying that's all he's doing so that "nobody can say I purposefully teased them"
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip