Bethesda has wrapped up the year in an end of year update for Starfield, with a raft of promises for new updates and content such as “new survival mechanics”, as well as some interesting player stats from the space RPG.
According to the blog post, in 2023, Starfield players played over 22 million days of the game, spent 26 million hours shipbuilding, visited 1.9 billion planets, and were killed by Ashta over 1.7 million times. That’s a whole lotta hours in the stars. While the stats are cool, it’s the rest of the post outlining some of the updates coming to Starfield in 2024 that are the real interesting part, including the game’s first expansion.
Starfield will receive updates “roughly every six weeks” starting in February, with the updates set to include quality-of-life improvements, new content, and feature updates. Bethesda has previously discussed introducing official modding support and “all new ways of travelling,” as well as the ability to access city maps while exploring major cities.
The post elaborated further on other plans for Starfield updates in 2024, including “expanding on ship customisation with ship decorations, new ship building options, and more.” One of the other things teased in the post was the addition of “all new Gameplay options,” which will allow players to “alter [their] gameplay to allow for an easier or more challenging experience” that expands beyond typical difficulty settings. This includes the option to tweak cargo settings, vendor credits, how afflictions are suffered, as well as “new survival mechanics.”
The mention of survival mechanics in Starfield comes after Todd Howard previously said planetary exploration was initially much more “punitive” until Bethesda “nerfed the hell out of it.” The previous system was apparently meant to include a more detailed environmental damage system which would encourage players to carry different suits to withstand different environments and planets, but they felt it was too “complex” and took away from player enjoyment of the game. Whether these teased Starfield survival mechanics lean back into the previous plans isn’t clear yet, though.
Starfield will also imminently receive official mod support with the launch of creations. Beginning early next year, Starfield will receive its own exporter, with players also getting access to a Creation Kit. “Modding has always been an enormous part of our games, with incredible community-made content constantly bringing fresh new experiences,” the post said. “With the scale and systems in Starfield, we can’t wait to see what you come up with!”
The post’s final update on what to expect from Starfield in 2024 was the mention of the game’s first major expansion, Shattered Space. Bethesda says the expansion is currently in development and will be coming next year, with Shattered Space set to introduce “new story content, new locations, new gear, and much more.”
It looks like Bethesda is hoping for another busy year for Starfield in 2024 with lots of new updates, fixes, and the first expansion all set to drop. While it didn’t get much of a look-in at The Game Awards, based on the stats in this post, it certainly looks like a hefty amount of players have loved the game so far – whether these regular updates help elevate Starfield to the level of longevity enjoyed by Skyrim though, only time will tell.
Lead Image Credit: Bethesda
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