When it comes to Starfield, Bethesda’s massive space RPG, Xbox head Phil Spencer doesn’t care about Steam active player counts or Game Awards GOTY snubs. He still believes, in his heart of hearts, that the game will enjoy Skryim-esque longevity—at least, that’s what he said onstage at Brazil’s Comic Con Experience 2023.
During the São Paulo-based convention, Spencer was asked if he knew Starfield was going to be a hit by host Mari Palma (thanks, GamesRadar). He made sure to point out that the massive RPG has had more than 12 million players since its launch and that it “still sits in our top ten most played games from our studios.” He doesn’t offer any supporting details for that statement—Does he mean this year or all time? Does he mean active players? How many games are we talking about here? But he does get into Starfield’s massive scope, and how he hopes that scope will translate to longevity.
After Spencer referenced Bethesda’s affinity for making huge games, Palma zeroed in on Skyrim, pointing out that people are still playing the Elder Scrolls sequel twelve years after it first debuted. When asked if he sees that happening with Starfield, Spencer said that’s “our goal” before elaborating a bit.
“Skyrim is such an amazing hit from Bethesda Game Studios,” he said. “Talking to [game director] Todd Howard and the team, really, what they wanted to do is [give] people who love space and space exploration…that same opportunity.” He then referenced the planned Shattered Space DLC (which does yet have a release date) and the mod tools (which are coming sometime in 2024) that have been “so important to Skyrim.”
“A ton of confidence that for many, many years, Starfield will be sitting very high in the gameplay,” he said.
Whether Spencer’s confidence is justified remains to be seen. Of course he wants Starfield to have legs—Microsoft spent $US7.5 billion buying Bethesda back in 2021. And yes, active player counts on Steam don’t look great, but that’s not a surefire way of telling if a game is good or bad. As someone who bounced pretty violently off of Starfield after about 30 hours of gameplay, I’m not sure it has the longevity Skyrim does, but perhaps mods and DLC will change all of that, and I’ll jump back into Bethesda’s galaxy next year for another 30-hour romp. Only time will tell.
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