Starfield Director Says id Software “Didn’t Help with the Combat”

As games get bigger, development studios are naturally going to band together. We’ve seen this with Final Fantasy 16, which has the Kingdom Hearts team and PlatinumGames providing development assistance. Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield is no exception, with id Software of DOOM fame assisting.

However, it’s not in the area you’re thinking. Speaking to IGN, director Todd Howard said id Software “did not help us with the combat. Well, first of all, I’d say being in the company and knowing the folks at Id Software for a long time. I’m a huge Doom fan. They’re the absolute best. DOOM Eternal is one of my favorite games.

“So with Fallout 4, they did give us a few tips on how to handle combat. And Starfield, we redid the combat ourselves, and it’s feeling great. But id has helped us really more on the graphics side.”

Bethesda was keen on taking aspects of the id Tech Engine and adding them to the Creation Engine. One of those is motion blur, which Howard explained. “It’s just how the game feels smooth. Some other things that they do in id Tech that we wanted to bring into Creation Engine 2, and they helped us do that, and it’s great.”

Interestingly, he even confirmed that the developer is working on a new game, but that’s it in terms of details. “And I’m such a fan of what they do. So being able to get an early look at what they’re doing next… Not here to talk about that, but it’s just…”

Starfield launches on September 6th for Xbox Series X/S and PC, with Premium Edition owners gaining early access on September 1st. It requires a whopping 125 GB of storage space on PC, and an SSD is mandatory. It runs at 4K on Xbox Series X and 1440p on Xbox Series S but is locked to 30 FPS on both consoles. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.