Starfield definitely has its fair share of fans out there (yours truly included), but there’s no arguing that the sci-fi RPG didn’t land with nearly the sort of impact and widespread acclaim that we’ve grown accustomed to see from Fallout and Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda Game Studios. However, former Bethesda designer Bruce Nesmith is confident that Starfield 2 is going to be “one hell of a game” whenever it comes out.
Speaking in a recent interview with VideoGamer, Nesmith – who left Bethesda in 2021 – spoke about how the studio was able to build on Morrowind and Oblivion with Skyrim, and how having the foundations of Starfield will similarly allow the developer to offer continued improvements with successive instalments.
“When we built Skyrim, we had the tremendous advantage of Oblivion, which had the tremendous advantage of Morrowind,” Nesmith said. “All that stuff was there for us. All we had to do was continue to improve and add new stuff in. We didn’t have to start from the ground up. If we’d had to start from the ground up, that would have been another two or three years of development time.
“I’m looking forward to Starfield 2. I think it’s going to be one hell of a game because it’s going to address a lot of the things people are saying, ‘We’re quite there. We’re missing a little bit.’ It will be able to take what’s in there right now and put in a lot of new stuff and fix a lot of those problems.”
Nesmith went on to cite other franchises like Dragon Age and Assassin’s Creed as examples of series that needed sequels to hone in on their strengths after a rough start (though many would argue that Dragon Age: Origins remains the series’ strongest instalment).
“If you look at the first Dragon Age, the first Assassin’s Creed, the first game in a lot of IPs, they tend to show off flashes of brilliance amid a lot of other things that don’t quite catch everybody’s eye,” he said. “No, they’re not quite as hot and popular. It takes, sadly, sometimes a second or third to version of the game in order to really enrich everything.
Starfield received its first post-launch expansion last month in the form of Shattered Space. Director Todd Howard confirmed earlier this year that the game would receive annual paid expansions. Leaks have claimed that the next expansion is titled Starborn.
Starfield is available on Xbox Series X/S and PC.