So we “Starfield” fans have been waiting over a year for new content for the game, but big daddy Todd Howard recently announced a few things on a podcast that might assuage some fears for the player base. It also might anger many. Let’s dive in, shall we?
First of all, let’s talk about positive notes from Todd’s interview. Apparently Bethesda is getting close to the point where they will feel comfortable talking about what’s coming for “Starfield” soon. Specifically, Todd says they will talk about it “soonish”, whatever that means. So take that as you will. He also confirmed that they continue to work on the next DLC for “Starfield”, but gives no timetable for it’s release.
Yeah, that’s really it for the positive announcements.
As for the less-positive information, Todd states that the rumors of a huge “Starfield 2.0” game update are false. Bethesda is working on content and gameplay fixes for the game in the short term, and apparently plans to continue support for the game into the future. They are also working on a second DLC, as I said before, but it sounds like this is not coming anytime soon. Which is to say, so much for the yearly DLC releases, with the company supporting the game for 10 years after launch.
I expect we’ll see this next DLC perhaps sometime in the fall, two years after “Shattered Space” launched, and that will be the last major content release for “Starfield”. Modders will continue support for the game, but I don’t think we’ll see much officially after the end of 2026. But that’s just my opinion, your mileage may vary.
Oh, and not surprisingly, Todd also said that most of Bethesda is working on “The Elder Scrolls 6” and multiple “Fallout” projects. This implies that there is only a small team still developing for and supporting “Starfield”. Way to prove the Haters on r/Starfield right, Todd…
Now, let’s get to this announcement Todd made. I see a lot of people hailing it as proof that they will be shadowdropping a big content update any time now. That is patently false, it simply is not what he said! Todd seemed very clear to me, actually. He said that they were getting close to feeling comfortable talking about their plans for “Starfield”. That’s it.
He did not say an update is coming soon. He did not mention a shadowdrop, even. All he said was they were going to talk about their plans “soonish”, something that isn’t even a real word.
It was basically corporate speak for “we’re tired of ‘Starfield’ fans whinging that we haven’t released any content in over a year, haven’t even released a bugfix patch since last summer, and want to make it seem like we actually continued to actively support the game.”
Let’s be honest here: “Starfield” is effectively in Maintenance Mode now. I’m a huge fan, and I play the game every weekend, in fact. But even I can see that this is all just corporate nonsense, meant to keep fans buying those Creation Credits, so they can get paid mods (that actually provide new content that Bethesda won’t make).
I would love for Bethesda to prove me wrong here. I would love to see them announce a huge roadmap for upcoming releases for “Starfield”, perhaps even with a shadowdropped content update at the same time. I would love to see Todd commit to yearly DLC releases again, and quarterly content updates, but let’s be honest… That just isn’t going to happen.
Read between the lines of Todd’s interview, and Bethesda’s plans are made quite clear. They are focused on ES6 and (inexplicably, multiple titles for) “Fallout”, with a skeleton crew at best supporting “Starfield”. The Haters on Reddit were right all along.
That all said, though, I’m going to delete all of my mods and start up a brand new character this weekend. That way, if a new update drops soon, I can reintroduce my mods slowly, as they get updated to work with said new content!
