When Bethesda wrapped up their E3 2018 conference by dropping two logos, one for the much anticipated The Elder Scrolls 6 and the other for their first new IP in many years, Starfield, the excitement quickly became muted by the fact gamers weren’t going to see these games for many years yet. However cautiously the hype trains have been leaving the station, fans clamouring for any bit of information wanted to know what Todd Howard meant by “Next Generation” when he described Starfield.
Eurogamer managed to ask the man himself what he meant, and it seems Howard didn’t use the phrase strictly to mean that we’ll have to get new hardware to play. “[Next-generation] to us means two things,” Howard said. “It does mean hardware and it does mean software on our side, and it also means gameplay – what does the next generation of epic single-player RPGs feel like to us? What systems we put it out on, what’s the hardware requirements – [that’s] still to be determined. We’re pushing it. We’re thinking very, very far in future so we’re building something that will handle next-generation hardware. That’s what we’re building on right now, that’s where our mind is, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t exist on the current systems as well.”
Howard has previously stated something similar, saying that though Starfield could very well skip current gen systems, it’s not guaranteed that it will do so. In the current interview, though, Howard also went on to say that Bethesda Game Studios began discussions on Starfield in earnest back in 2004, and they began active development in 2015. While Howard would stop short of saying that the game would feel similar to their popular Elder Scrolls or Fallout series, he did promise the game would very much have their DNA. Which sounds about right for a new IP. When Starfield is much closer to being a reality, Gamingbolt will have a release date for you.