Home “We struggled with how to make exploration fun” says Howard as he confirms Starfield will get more expansions in the future

“We struggled with how to make exploration fun” says Howard as he confirms Starfield will get more expansions in the future

Bethesda’s Game Director Todd Howard has explained in a YouTube interview that the Starfield team struggled initially to make exploring large barren planets fun as he partly explained why the upcoming Shattered Space DLC will largely take place in one location in the universe.

“One of the benefits of something like Starfield with its scope is that it allows something like that while feeling natural.”

Howard was also questioned whether the studio’s plans for Starfield included annual expansions that may answer some of the questions that completing Starfield left behind and for fans, his answer was positive, “I would say we would want to, more or less – how long that continues? Hopefully a very long time but we are planning for the one after this (Shattered Space), so there will be another one.

Unanswered questions

“I don’t know that our goal is to answer every question, we look at it and say, ‘what’s a good angle – what do we want to add to the game as an experience, for its tone.”

Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion will continue to push the game forward as is set for release this Fall. The original game came out in September last year so, while there is no date confirmed yet, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see the DLC around a similar time.

Since its launch, Starfield has received much love from Bethesda (as expected really) and has started to fulfill its promise after a lukewarm reception from many gamers. Not everything has gone to plan and the studio was hammered last week for releasing paid DLC that lasted only a few minutes and allowed to complete a mission – Steam users were quick to respond with the time-honored tactic of review-bombing the game – something which doesn’t really serve any real purpose other than to show displeasure at a developer’s choices.

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Paul McNally
Gaming Editor

Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title published by IDG Media. Having spent time as Head of Communications at a professional sports club and working for high-profile charities such as the National Literacy Trust, he returned as Managing Editor in charge of large US-based technology websites in 2020. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine,…

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