The extremely charming Bethesda CEO, Todd Howard, introduced the world to Starfield at the E3 2018 event. Although we got barely more than a title screen, an entirely new Bethesda IP is on its way and that has us excited. In an interview with Eurogamer, Todd Howard has confirmed that the game will be a “next-generation game”, but you might not actually need a next-generation console to play it. He also clarifies that “next-generation” means both hardware and software but also has them thinking how a next-generation RPG would feel like.
“What systems we put it out on – what’s the hardware requirements – is still to be determined,” Howard states. “We’re pushing it; we’re thinking very, very far in future so we’re building something that will handle next-generation hardware. That’s what we’re building on right now, that’s where our mind is, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t exist on the current systems as well.”
This sounds like it will be a similar situation that we saw with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game was practically the poster child for next-generation Nintendo games for the Nintendo Switch but was still released on the WiiU as well. If what Todd Howard says is true, Starfield should come out on both the current generation consoles as well as the future ones, that will definitely come at one point or another.
In the interview, he also explains that the game will feel different than other Bethesda games as they are implementing new systems that fit the game really well. He said that they are systems that they have been thinking about for a while, which means they might have thought about implementing these in their older games but felt unsure on whether to do so. Since Starfield is a brand new IP, they can pretty much do whatever they feel like.
In the final parts of the interview, Todd Howard explains that he had been thinking of doing a sci-fi RPG ever since 2004. He said they had a list of what they wanted to do and a sci-fi RPG was on the number 2 spot, after a post-apocalyptic one. The post-apocalyptic one they were planning to create themselves until they acquired the rights to fall out. The studio began dedicating people to the Starfield project as soon as Fallout 4 was released in 2015 but clearly has had many ideas for the game years before that.
