Starfield - Bethesda Softworks - Release Date - Sep 6th 2023

[Osprey]

I like how the trailer is basically showing off that you can climb ladders now, lol. It looks extremely good and I'm pretty sure its not pre-rendered, though I could be wrong.

Todd Howard warned not to read too much into that:

The astronaut is shown climbing a ladder, something famously unheard of in Skyrim. But remember that this is a cinematic trailer and not gameplay. Sounds like in the game, the ladder will function more like a door.

"Well... climbing is not... don't read too much into the ladder. It’s a ladder to get you in and out of the spaceship. That’s about it," said Howard when posed tough ladder-based questions by The Telegraph.

What Todd Howard has said about Starfield: 'It's like Skyrim in space' with detailed cheese sandwiches | PC Gamer

My guess is that it'll be like the ladders in some of Subnautica's vehicles. When you're close enough to them, you simply press a button and your character climbs them and emerges outside, but it's a scripted animation that you can't interrupt. If you want to go back down, you have to wait for the animation to finish, then use the ladder again. That's the case only for the vehicle ladders, though. Ladders elsewhere in the world are functional and can be manually climbed and jumped off of. Hopefully, Starfield is at least like that.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Lool, oh man, thats even funnier. They put that in the trailer just to shoot it down. Its not even like climbing ladders is compelling gameplay and bethesda developed games are RPGs for and foremost but still, its gonna be 2022 and theres still no functioning ladders.

 

[JaegerDice]

And there is a better chance of Sony releasing Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok day of on X-Box than that happening. It would cripple the PSN store and PS Now, which are two massive sources of revenue for them.

True, unless it was some special form of Gamepass that only had the MS titles. Cause its really only the access to 3rd party titles that would undercut PSN Store income.

 

[RandV]

That article included I'm surprised no one's commented on the "25 years on the making" part? They may be calling it 'Skyrim in space' but it sounds like the project really started as 'Daggerfall in space'. And if they talk about it being 'more hardcore' and it's likely going to lean towards random generated content over hand crafted, because you know space is massive and all, the latter name could be more accurate.

 

[NyQuil]

That article included I'm surprised no one's commented on the "25 years on the making" part? They may be calling it 'Skyrim in space' but it sounds like the project really started as 'Daggerfall in space'. And if they talk about it being 'more hardcore' and it's likely going to lean towards random generated content over hand crafted, because you know space is massive and all, the latter name could be more accurate.

I just assumed they were referring to the accumulated experience they'd earned.

 

[Osprey]

I just assumed they were referring to the accumulated experience they'd earned.

I assume that it's that and that someone at Bethesda had an idea for an RPG set in space to follow Daggerfall and it didn't make it past the idea stage because it didn't seem feasible in the 90s. Fast forward a couple of decades to the company re-visiting the idea and, viola, the chance to market it as "25 years in the making."

 

[Byron Bitz]

Why wait so long? They should release it in 2021

 

[Beau Knows]

Why wait so long? They should release it in 2021

I'm guessing they need to finish the game first? Or at least I hope they do.

 

[Byron Bitz]

I'm guessing they need to finish the game first? Or at least I hope they do.

This game was announced years ago, how long does it take?

 

[Beau Knows]

This game was announced years ago, how long does it take?

These games can often take several years to develop. And I imagine COVID happening midway through caused some problems.

 

[Osprey]

This game was announced years ago, how long does it take?

Ambitious AAA games easily take 5+ years. When they announced it 3 years ago, it was probably only 20% completed. That's a lot different than Fallout 4, which was probably 90% completed by the time that they announced it. Starfield was announced when they had nothing but a blueprint, a title and a logo probably to satisfy investors and fans impatient to hear news of their next big game.

 

[Jovavic]

They probably could release it in late 2021, but it would definitely be a normal Bethesda launch with bugs and crashes galore. Microsoft paid good money for the company and I'm betting they want the finished product to launch as smoothly as possible.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Too late to release it in 2021. They would’ve announced it at E3.

 

[Jussi]

 

[TheBeastCoast]

There is a better then average chance that Todd Howard is full of shit as well.

 

[Osprey]

In other words, Starfield is at the point where Cyberpunk 2077 was at launch, and it's still a year away.

 

[Jussi]

There is a better then average chance that Todd Howard is full of shit as well.

Except Microsoft's in charge. They won't let them release a game that doesn't meet standards. I mean, they delayed Halo Infinite by a year.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Except Microsoft's in charge. They won't let them release a game that doesn't meet standards. I mean, they delayed Halo Infinite by a year.

Sure, don't care. Todd and Bethesda gotta prove it at this point. What he has to say is worthless.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Sureee it is.

 

[Jussi]

The Starfield suite was played at the end of the Skyrim 10th anniversary concert:

 

[Commander Clueless]

Sureee it is.

Sixteen times the detail.

 

[Osprey]

Sureee it is.

I can believe it. The game was announced 3.5 years ago and the average game development time is 4 years. It's also possible that, by "whole game," he means playing through the main quest and beating the game. If they couldn't do that by now, they'd be in big trouble. Think back to Skyrim and how its main quest was only a small part of the game. Starfield may be the same way. They'd be foolish to not work on and mostly finish that as early as possible, then spend their remaining development time working on side quests.

Even if he really means that everything is already in the game, there's no doubt still a lot of work to do. It's likely riddled with game breaking bugs, glitches and major performance issues, especially because it's a new engine. They probably still need at least 6 months to iron all of that out, which would take them right up to the average game development time (and that's not counting the development time spent before the announcement).

 

[NyQuil]

Starfield will be fantastic in 5 years after the mod community has gotten a hold of it.

 

[Jussi]

I can believe it. The game was announced 3.5 years ago and the average game development time is 4 years. It's also possible that, by "whole game," he means playing through the main quest and beating the game. If they couldn't do that by now, they'd be in big trouble. Think back to Skyrim and how its main quest was only a small part of the game. Starfield may be the same way. They'd be foolish to not work on and mostly finish that as early as possible, then spend their remaining development time working on side quests.

Even if he really means that everything is already in the game, there's no doubt still a lot of work to do. It's likely riddled with game breaking bugs, glitches and major performance issues, especially because it's a new engine. They probably still need at least 6 months to iron all of that out, which would take them right up to the average game development time (and that's not counting the development time spent before the announcement).

With Microsoft being their owner/boss now, it means they have access to all the Q&A/testing Microsoft has. There's a much less chance of the game being released in the state Fallout '76 was.

 

[syz]

Starfield will be fantastic in 5 years after the mod community has gotten a hold of it.

If they're even allowed to get a hold of it.