#Checking again in with Starfield in early 2025: is that this it?

Having spent about 150 hours enjoying Starfield when it got here out, I genuinely felt good concerning the normal state of the sport for some time. Then, Shattered House got here out and fell flat on its face, and I made a decision to attend it out as Bethesda continued bettering issues. Alas, silence.

It’s early 2025, and Bethesda’s been awfully mum about Starfield. Although Todd Howard did state forward of Shattered House‘s launch that extra DLCs can be coming in 2025 and onwards, the very fact of the matter is that the studio’s hype machine simply type of died down. Whether or not that’s as a result of Shattered House didn’t evaluation properly in any respect, or as a result of there’s merely nothing else to point out off, the top result’s a lot the identical.

Right here’s the factor: up till Shattered House‘s launch, Starfield was trucking alongside at a fairly brisk tempo. Updates had been coming in at a really satisfying tempo, and admittedly, game-changing content material additions equivalent to REV-8 had been being dished out left and proper. Throughout this time, I performed Starfield as a wierd continuation of my Future expertise (as bizarre as which may sound), and the promise of issues to return saved me entertained all through.

Then, Shattered House didn’t ship on the promise of a significant new growth to the core Starfield gameplay expertise, and gamers largely moved on to greener pastures. In my case, that was STALKER 2, which is admittedly a wierd comparability to attract upon. Then got here Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 with its oddly Morrowind-like gameplay loop that I’m hoping Bethesda takes an excellent lengthy take a look at for TES 6.

My level is that Starfield type of missed its alternative to really make a mark on the gaming business. Worse, Bethesda’s help for its long-awaited, extremely anticipated flagship RPG is now nearly nonexistent. I’m not saying Bethesda’s not engaged on stuff within the background, in fact. I’m certain we’ll get a couple of extra content material updates and, maybe, an additional growth pack down the road. However the hype behind this complete shtick is successfully gone, and I’m undecided if it could actually ever be regained at this level.

The timeline isn’t wanting nice, truthfully: it’s been about 16 months since Starfield was launched as of February 2025. In that point, we’ve acquired an enormous quantity of patches, a frankly astonishing variety of paid mods, and a single substantial growth pack of questionable high quality. Examine that to, say, Fallout 4. In simply over a yr and a half, Fallout 4 acquired six official DLCs, three of which had been genuinely compelling growth packs.

With Fallout 4, Bethesda was ready and keen to keep up a stable and fascinating content material launch schedule, which helped prop the sport up again and again as months went on. With Starfield, compared, it appears like Bethesda simply gave up midway by, and we’re all left questioning what on earth the following step for it is going to be.

The best way issues are, possibly it’s for one of the best if Bethesda actually does simply transfer on to Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6. It’s a large disgrace that Starfield is within the state it’s in, however I’ve come to consider patches and enhancements simply received’t be sufficient to prop it as much as the identical stage as Bethesda’s different properties. There’s one thing necessary lacking from Starfield‘s core gameplay loop, and no sort of fancy new content material can compensate for that.

On the subject of Bethesda’s future releases, although, right here’s some meals for thought: Starfield‘s Creations ecosystem has overtaken the nice previous Nexus Mods platform in reputation an excellent lengthy whereas in the past. This won’t have appeared like a notable drawback some time again, however now we’re taking a look at a scenario the place an enormous chunk of Starfield‘s finest mod content material is locked behind in-game purchases. It’s not an excellent look, and it might properly find yourself disposing of the sport’s modding neighborhood in due time. I’m nonetheless hoping Bethesda will appropriate course with its subsequent challenge, if not with Starfield, however provided that Todd Howard is now busier than ever, I’ve acquired my doubts.

Doubts, then, are all we’ve acquired since Bethesda doesn’t wish to converse out about its plans for Starfield. Within the best-case situation, that is only a sensible utility of the issues we discovered from final yr’s interview with Phil Spencer. There, Spencer stated that Howard questioned whether or not the discharge of considerable content material additions, such because the aforementioned REV-8, ought to’ve been tied to the DLC moderately than a standalone replace.

“I believe a number of the suggestions on the growth is: ‘We wished extra options.’ And he’s like, ‘Nicely, ought to now we have waited to place buggies out,” Howard instructed Spencer.

So, Bethesda is likely to be biding its time till it’s acquired a large chunk of Starfield goodness able to launch. Will it matter, although? We’ll simply have to attend and see, but it surely’s not wanting nice.