Bethesda boss Todd Howard will continue to work on Starfield and ensure the company’s ambitious space game can “eventually become something that will be legendary,” according to the game’s composer.
Speaking to RPGsite, veteran video game composer and frequent Bethesda collaborator Inon Zur said he believed Starfield had simply been ahead of its time when it arrived in 2023 to a more muted reception than the company’s usual Elder Scrolls and Fallout blockbusters.
The years since have seen Bethesda launch an initial expansion to the game, 2024’s Shattered Space, but not a whole lot else. Still, Bethesda invited a gaggle of hardcore Starfield fans to its studio before Christmas to show them some of what it is still working on, so we know that more content is on its way — even if the fans themselves have suggested it is not some kind of Cyberpunk 2077-esque version 2.0 relaunch.
“He is very persuasive and has a very strong character,” Zur said of Bethesda boss Todd Howard, who helped drive development on Starfield during its lengthy time in production. “He will also find ways to describe what he wants without really calling it a name. He knows how to allow freedom of creativity on one hand, but also how to steer it to his own vision. He is a visionary. He sees things that people will start to find out years later.
“This also applies to Starfield,” Zur continued. “When Starfield released, I believe people were just not ready for it. It’s a different way of looking at it, but Todd is really strong, and he said very, very lightly, ‘Look, if you don’t like it, then you don’t like it, but this is the new thing that we’re doing, and we’re sticking to it.’
“He believes in his way,” Zur added, “and it just has proven time and time again that eventually people will understand his vision. It just takes time and this is a common thing for all the big visionaries. Sometimes people really don’t understand them correctly, but they were strong enough to stay on course, and Todd will stay on course on Starfield. Starfield will eventually become something that will be legendary. I have no doubt. It’s just a matter of time.”
Does Zur know more about what Bethesda has planned for Starfield? It seems likely, considering the fact that he scored the main game and Shattered Space, and seems a safe bet to be involved in whatever new DLC or expansion Bethesda has been cooking. He’s also clearly close to the company in general, having also served as composer for Fallout 76, The Elder Scrolls: Blades, and parts of The Elder Scrolls Online. Outside of video games, he also wrote the Fallout TV series theme, alongside further work on several episodes.
So what do we expect is coming to Starfield? Well, Bethesda has previously confirmed plans to improve Starfield space gameplay “to make the travels there more rewarding”, after datamined fragments of code suggested the developer had a more streamlined space travel experience in the works. Based on this datamine, while you may be able to travel between planets within the same system, you won’t be able to fly all the way between systems, nor fly directly from a planet’s surface into orbit, like in No Man’s Sky.
A major retail leak last month suggested that this new content was being lined up to arrive alongside a PlayStation 5 version of the game, which is reportedly set to launch on April 7 with physical copies and both a Standard and Premium editions.
Last month, Howard himself confirmed that “a lot of Starfield content” is on the way, and that Bethesda would be announcing it more publicly “really soon.” Speaking to Kinda Funny, Howard teased that the company was “moving into a phase where we’re ready to talk about Starfield. And really show that in the right way, and what’s coming to the game. We’ve been doing a lot of work that we like a lot.”
Elsewhere, of course, Bethesda is mostly working on The Elder Scrolls 6. On the upside, Howard has said this project will mark a return to Bethesda’s “classic style” of games following experiments with online and sandbox-style gameplay in Fallout 76 and Starfield. On the downside, it also sounds like the project won’t be ready for launch anytime soon.
Then there’s the Fallout 3 remaster that fans are desperate to see announced, which is also reportedly in active development, years after it appeared in FTC documents as part of Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard. The Verge said Bethesda is keen to ensure the game is polished enough to enjoy a successful launch similar to last year’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which Bethesda chief Todd Howard recently told IGN he was “really, really pleased” with.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
