Key Takeaways
- Starfield System Designer Bruce Nesmith expects that Bethesda’s latest game will get a sequel.
- Nesmith believes Starfield 2 will be a great game that will build on its predecessor’s foundation.
- Bethesda is currently working on TES 6 and has already confirmed Fallout 5 will be its next project afterward. Starfield 2 hence isn’t likely to arrive before the late 2030s at the earliest.
Starfield 2 is likely to happen further down the road, according to former Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith. What’s more, the industry veteran has high hopes for the Starfield sequel.
Nesmith is a game designer who had two stints at Bethesda spanning more than 20 years combined. He worked on all the mainline The Elder Scrolls games since Daggerfall, as well as Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, among other projects. While he left Bethesda in 2021 to become a fantasy novel author, he still contributed to Starfield as a system designer.
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Nesmith reflected on Bethesda’s latest game in a recent interview with VideoGamer, stating that Starfield is bound to serve as an excellent template for a future RPG. Elaborating on this train of thought, the former developer explained that first entries in any series tend to be rough around the edges while still showing “flashes of brilliance,” thus serving as an important building block for any given franchise to really start hitting its stride later on. That’s what he believes will be the case with Starfield. “I’m looking forward to Starfield 2,” Nesmith said, adding that he expects it to be “one hell of a game.”
Starfield Took Longer To Develop Because It Was Made From Scratch
Further illustrating the subject of iterative development, the industry veteran noted how having Morrowind was a “tremendous advantage” while developing Oblivion, which, in turn, also benefited Skyrim. Had Bethesda instead been forced to start from scratch each and every time it was building another 3D fantasy RPG, Oblivion and Skyrim would have conceivably taken “two or three years” longer, Nesmith explained. Coincidentally, Starfield spent over seven years in development, significantly longer than Bethesda’s other titles.
I’m looking forward to Starfield 2. I think it’s going to be one hell of a game.
And while Nesmith acknowledged that fans had some complaints about Starfield, he anticipates that the game’s eventual sequel will address a lot of these grievances. “It takes, sadly, sometimes a second or third version of the game in order to really enrich everything,” he opined.
Starfield 2 Likely Isn’t Happening Anytime Soon
Although Nesmith thus appears to be fairly convinced that Starfield will get a sequel, the chances of that happening anytime soon are basically non-existent, at least if the idea is for that game to be handled internally. Namely, The Elder Scrolls 6 is currently in early development, and Bethesda is also presently working on post-launch Starfield content, in addition to continuing to support Fallout 76. Once TES 6 is done circa 2029, the developer intends to start working on Fallout 5, as previously confirmed by Bethesda Executive Producer Todd Howard. Assuming AAA development cycles don’t get any longer in the meantime, Fallout 5 may hit the market circa 2034. Therefore, even if Bethesda were to tackle Starfield 2 immediately afterward, that game would be unlikely to arrive until the late 2030s at the earliest.
Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.
The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy – and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems in Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest and most ambitious game.
- Released
- September 6, 2023
- Engine
- proprietary engine
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Violence
- How Long To Beat
- 20 Hours
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 101 GB (September 2023)
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Cross Save
- no
- Cross-Platform Play
- no multiplayer