The announcements of Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 generated a lot of excitement among fans, but the long silence has dampened things pretty considerably. Bethesda swears that Starfield will be worth the long wait , but before too long, it’s going to have to give fans something. This engine overhaul is worth getting excited about, to be sure, but it still pales Click In this article comparison to any actual, solid news on either Starfield or The Elder Scrolls
According to Bethesda Chief Software Engineer and spokesperson Todd Howard, Starfield is going to be the studio’s biggest game to date and focus solely on its single-player RPG experience. Little to nothing has been known about the game so far until the first supposed screenshots of the RPG title leaked last week, so this is the biggest news about the game to come directly from Bethesda since its cryptic E3 2018 de
Howard remained as tight-lipped as ever about a release date for either title, only saying it’ll ” be a while. ” This could mean years, but it could very well mean months, considering Howard’s been historically blasé about release dates that ended up happening less than a year later. The implication of two major titles being available on the very first day of their release makes a pretty strong case for the notion Game Pass subscribers will have immediate access to all future Bethesda titles. It’s just as possible those same subscribers will essentially never have to pay outright for a Bethesda game in the future, as long it’s an Xbox exclusive (which quite a few of them will
The most likely reason for this is because, like The Elder Scrolls VI , Starfield is still a long, long way from being ready for release. Most fans knew that there was zero chance that the game would see the light of day in 2019, and most are estimating that Q4 of 2020 will be the absolute earliest we could see this game release. However, it could go beyond that, and it’s not unthinkable to assume that Bethesda will wait until the next console generation begins to officially debut their new
It’s hard to say exactly what this will mean for the games until fans can learn anything at all about them. Howard mentions that the next-gen technology is ” optimized for the vast worlds we love to create ,” and given Bethesda’s commitment to producing larger worlds for each successive game in the Elder Scrolls franchise, it can likely be expected that both of the upcoming titles will feature open worlds on a truly impressive scale . The precise details of what else these new engine overhauls will bring are completely unkn
While Starfield is still likely years from the release, players recently were treated to a few leaked screenshots allegedly taken from a 2018 build. Although rather spare, these images showed third-person gameplay of an player-controlled astronaut and a piece of concept art depicting a futuristic, hyper-detailed ship render with color. A neat part of the leak were the HUD icons in the gameplay screenshot, one of which showed the remaining amount of O2 in the player character’s oxygen tank, pointing to a major survival element that could make it into the final game. Interestingly, it may be this leak and the huge interest it generated that’s obligated Bethesda to share some new official information about the ti
Microsoft announced back in September it had purchased ZeniMax Media , which owns Bethesda and id Software, among other companies, for $7.5 billion. This dealt a massive blow to Sony in the console war leading up to the next-gen release this month. The acquisition, which should finish up sometime in 2021, gives Microsoft exclusive rights to the majority of Bethesda’s best franchises, including Fallout , DOOM , and The Elder Scrolls , in addition to Bethesda’s upcoming space RPG Starfield . Bethesda will still retain a certain degree of autonomy as developers will be able to publish titles for PlayStation on a “case by case” basis. However, Microsoft has gained a huge advantage in taking exclusivity of Bethesda’s strongest tit
Recently, Howard took part in a Develop:Brighton Conference . During a conversation with James Batchelor of GamesIndustry.biz, Howard revealed that while Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 are still a ways off, they’ll be available on Xbox Game Pass on the first day of their respective releases. This confirms speculation on how Bethesda would handle its future releases . Howard also dropped a few more tidbits about the two anticipated titles, including that Starfield will eschew multiplayer in favor of a singleplayer format and will be in a universe even bigger than Fallout
If that is indeed the case, it may herald a gradual overhaul of how players purchase and play games. It could lead to a phase out of physical and digital one-time purchase copies in favor of monthly subscription streaming services. Bethesda’s status as a prolific studio with a considerable degree of clout may make it the standard bearer for such a revolution, or at the very least, the forerunner in Microsoft’s ongoing studio acquisition campa