Starfield 2, a sequel to the 2023 space-faring RPG from Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios that remains exclusive to Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, is probably happening, and not only that, it will a “hell of a game,” according to the latest predictions from Bruce Nesmith, a former designer at Bethesda that worked on many of the developer’s biggest games, including Starfield (system designer) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (lead designer). Nesmith, who left the company in 2021, explained that the sequel to Starfield should be better than the original because Bethesda wouldn’t have to start from scratch, a problem that the studio didn’t have to cope with for some of its more acclaimed projects (e.g., a majority of the Elder Scrolls titles). Starfield still has a mixed rating on Steam, while its expansion, Shattered Space, has prompted mostly negative reviews on Valve’s platform since its launch on September 30.
“When we built Skyrim, we had the tremendous advantage of Oblivion, which had the tremendous advantage of Morrowind. All that stuff was there for us,” Nesmith explained. “All we had to do was continue to improve and add new stuff in. We didn’t have to start from the ground up. If we’d had to start from the ground up, that would have been another two or three years of development time.
“I’m looking forward to Starfield 2. I think it’s going to be one hell of a game because it’s going to address a lot of the things people are saying, ‘We’re quite there. We’re missing a little bit.’ It will be able to take what’s in there right now and put in a lot of new stuff and fix a lot of those problems.”