The most hyped big-budget Xbox title in the upcoming months is Starfield, an open-universe RPG. The game was initially planned for a 2022 release, but the developers pushed it back to early 2023 a few months back. The game is now scheduled for a Spring 2023 release. Microsoft revealed a bunch of information on this upcoming title in the recent Xbox & Bethesda event. After the event, director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard, has revealed a bunch of information on the upcoming game.
Howard spoke about Bethesda’s plans to support Starfield post-launch. According to him, the upcoming title will receive support to the tune of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Developers are adding more content to the game even 10 years from its release. Howard said that Starfield will receive a similar treatment.
Starfield will also bring native support for modding. Howard said that the inclusion of modding a.k.a. introduction of player-made extra content, will also bring players back to the game in the long term. Modding also keeps the community around the game thriving, which is another way to increase the shelf life of a game, says Howard. Although he did not get into the specifics of modding support, the game will probably allow modders to populate the 1,000 explorable planets by themselves.
Howard did not give any detailed information on either of these inclusions. This leaves room for a lot of speculation. Fans are questioning whether the expansions will be added as separate DLCs that can be bought and installed or will Bethesda follow a live service model with the upcoming game. Also, the promise of continuous support brings in the question of battle passes, seasons of content, etc. we have seen in similar games.
Starfield is still almost a year away. Thus, almost all of these questions will remain unanswered for quite some time now. Also, a lot of current things might change as development progresses throughout this year. Thus, we are not sure how many of these elements will make it to the final release. Currently, Bethesda is planning to release Starfield in early 2023.