After a prolonged period of slow progress, Bethesda has ramped up the pace of updates for Starfield in recent weeks, having released two major back-to-back updates for the sci-fi RPG in the months of May and June, while more content and updates – including the paid expansion Shattered Space – are also on the way. But is this the sort of pace of updates can we expect Bethesda Game Studios to stick to moving forward.
Speaking in a recent interview with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, director Todd Howard revealed that the studio has a second year of updates also planned for Starfield, but stated that the cadence of updates is going to vary.
“The cadence of things is going to differ depending on the update that we’re doing and where our development lands,” he said. “Sometimes you’ll have some shorter gaps, sometimes you’ll have bigger gaps between bigger updates.”
Howard added that though the game’s recent updates lined up with releases in close vicinity across May and June, there’s likely to be a larger gap before the next update, while longer gaps will also follow next year, with the studio current planning “big beats” for the game’s second year of free updates.
He added, “There’ll probably be more of a gap after this, there’ll be some bigger gaps next year as we look at those big beats for the ‘Year 2’ that we’re planning, and we’ll make sure hopefully that we communicate that well to the audience.”
On top of free updates, Bethesda’s plan for Starfield also includes paid expansions. Beyond the upcoming Shattered Space, which is rumoured to release in September, Howard says Bethesda Game Studios is targeting annual expansions. How long that will continue remains to be seen, but the studio is already planning at least a second expansion that will come next year.
“I would say- more or less, yeah,” Howard said. “How long that continues, hopefully a very long time, but we’re planning for the one after this, so there will be another one.”
Starfield is available on Xbox Series X/S and PC. The game has surpassed 14 million lifetime players across all platforms.
