Starfield is the latest open world RPG joining the increasingly large list of future Bethesda games. Unsurprisingly, the game has a huge amount of hype behind it. This excitement is despite a lack of any official news about the game, but that has never stopped hype for Bethesda titles before. In addition to starting this ambitious project, Bethesda has recently been acquired by Microsoft. The two coinciding may speak volumes for what the Bethesda/Microsoft deal has in store for both companies and future games.
Starfield stands in an interesting position, as how Microsoft and Bethesda choose to market, develop, and distribute the title will reflect on how this partnership might continue. Although it may seem like a new situation, this is not the first time that Microsoft has experimented with the marketing of an open-world sci-fi RPG, and the company’s treatment of The Outer Worlds could also shed light on how Starfield might be treated.
Bethesda stands as one of the most popular developers/publishers of the last decade, though this position is a shaky one thanks to some of Bethesda’s recentreleases. However, the loyalty of Bethesda’s fanbase cannot be understated, and the sustained popularity of its games speaks volumes. Its near decade-old flagship title, Skyrim, still has over 5000 concurrent Steam players at the time of writing, to say nothing of the countless Skyrim ports that exist.
In fact, the standout fantasy RPG is still so relevant that a Skyrim board game is coming out soon, demonstrating that Bethesda makes titles that truly stick in the cultural consciousness. The open world RPG is where Bethesda cut its teeth in triple A gaming. As such, Starfield could be an incredible gain for Microsoft, as the title combines Bethesda’s RPG pedigree with the endless opportunity of a vast universe. It is the first original RPG in 25 years from the company and has allegedly had over ten years of discussion and planning internally.
Not only could Starfield prove to be invaluable to Microsoft, but Microsoft could be as valuable in return. One of these advantages is an access to incredible resources and hardware. ZeniMax will likely have a similar access to Microsoft’s deep pockets, which will come in handy as Starfield looks like Bethesda’s most ambitious game ever.
Starfield‘s open world is going to be very different from the deliberate design of Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds. When talking about the game, Todd Howard confirmed that Bethesda created the open world using procedural generation. This is different to how games like No Man’s Sky work, where the game’s procedural generation makes the universe as it is played. In Starfield’s case, the universe will still have Bethesda’s classic authorship (and probably Skyrim’s voice acting too). This game will use random creation techniques to craft an authentic shape to its universe, and then fill it in later with immersive, detailed lore.
In summary, Starfield might be the company’s most ambitious RPG ever. As such, Microsoft’s extensive resources will be essential in making the game a success. Dynamic use of procedural generation in the worldbuilding, a wide-open universe, and design cues from games like No Man’s Sky show how far from Bethesda’s usual fare it will be.
Science fiction RPGs are not quite as popular as the more tried and tested genres that Bethesda specializes in. So, Starfield as a Microsoft/Bethesda flagship product may have several risks attached, but thankfully, then, the two companies have The Outer Worlds. The game demonstrates the potential of an exclusive sci-fi RPG.
The Outer Worlds’ Epic Games Store exclusivity was nothing if not controversial, but the game released on other PC platforms a year. The game was a massive success, and Obsidian’s Fallout stylings in the science fiction setting worked well for many fans. The exclusivity deal worked well for Microsoft, as the game sold over 2.5 million copies before opening up to other platforms. This practice may speak volumes about Starfield‘s future distribution.
Furthermore, the central competition to Starfield‘s open-world RPG would be any sequels to The Outer Worlds. Thankfully for both studios, they are owned by Microsoft. This means that conflicting releases are incredibly unlikely.
Fallout 4 took an extremely different approach to its setting than Obsidian’s New Vegas predecessor in the series. It will be no surprise then if Starfield follows suit with a radically different tone to The Outer Worlds. With a focus on randomly generated environments over specifically crafted planets, Bethesda’s more atmosphere-based game design seems like a defining feature of the game, so Microsoft is in a perfect position to exploit the gap in the market for a Bethesda-style sci-fi RPG. Starfield looks primed to do just that.
Starfield is in development.
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