And The Enlightened are atheists who believe in a doctrine of humanism. Sanctum Universum adherents believe space travel has brought humans closer to God. How has humanity's journey to the stars affected their feelings about God? In Starfield, there are two competing schools of thought. Step inside The Lodge -the home and headquarters to the fringe space explorers of Constellation. In the not-so-distant future, humans are still humans. Inside the game's first spaceship, which is owned by a daring and impulsive space traveler named Barrett, there are photographs taken from across the galaxy on the walls, a space rock on the shelves, a handwritten sign that says 'Status: Tired' above a small bed, and a sandwich on the table. In Starfield, like all Bethesda games, it's the smaller details that reinforce the big ideas. There's an industrial robot companion named VASCO, and a feature on your spaceship that 'bends and folds space' allowing you to travel across the galaxy in seconds. And that's where Pely's punk ethos comes into play: the stylized and exaggerated technology that doesn't exist yet here on Earth. 'This is technology that people can look at and relate to.' 'We wanted this to be hard science fiction,' Pely says. Spacesuits look like they were dreamt up in the 1970s. Buttons on spaceships are not mysterious there are labels detailing what they do. It's a fusion of future and past, a style the team calls 'NASA punk.' The idea is that everything in Starfield's future world feels tactile and real. Say hello to Sarah, one of the many characters you meet while playing Starfield. Of particular interest to him is 1988's Wayne Gretzky Hockey. Inside that trophy case, Howard points to a row of boxes made up of every video game the studio has released. It's also where NPR meets Starfield's game director Todd Howard just before the game's release. It's a monument to how deeply the studio's games have resonated with people. Starfield's story shoots for the stars, but it was born right here on Earth.Īt Bethesda Game Studios in Maryland, a trophy case starts on the first floor of the building and extends upward to the third. It also has real life consequences for the developers who are banking on the game's success being as grand as their vision. It's no exaggeration to say this might be one of the biggest stories ever told - in any medium. The studio behind it says it has 3 million words of dialogue and includes more than 1,000 environments players can explore across multiple galaxies. Welcome to Starfield, a new video game decades in the making.

'They've purchased a number of studios and been working on improving their portfolio and image, but lots of people have still been critical of them for not having the strongest line-up.Concept art for Starfield shows ships hauling cargo from an active mining operation.

'Microsoft came into this generation on the back foot - their previous console was much less successful than their competitor and they've made a lot of changes to how Xbox operates,' she says. Games journalist James says the service, which has more than 25 million subscribers, has changed how Microsoft sees gaming. One of the main reasons was bringing some of the industry's biggest franchises to its Xbox Game Pass service, a Netflix-style subscription that offers games not just on console and PC, but also smartphones via cloud streaming. That's because Microsoft bought Bethesda's parent company for $7.5bn (then £5.8bn) in 2020. It may have felt like Skyrim in time came to every device that ran on electricity, but Starfield won't even appear on PlayStation or Nintendo's Switch, both of which boast far bigger audiences than the current Xbox consoles. It might be a big release for gamers, but it's perhaps an even bigger one for Microsoft and its Xbox platform. It's sold more than 60 million copies thanks to countless re-releases on modern consoles like the PlayStation 5, virtual reality headsets, and even Amazon Alexa speakers.īut while excitement for Starfield is undeniable, and early reviews have been positive, it will likely not come close to such sales figures. That was Fallout 4, an instalment many players and critics felt didn't live up to its predecessor or the studio's most popular title: Skyrim.ĭebuting in 2011, Skyrim took the relatively niche and nerdy Elder Scrolls mainstream. The wait was made worse given Bethesda's main team hasn't put out a game since 2015.

Pic: Bethesdaįirst announced back in 2018, Starfield was subject to multiple delays before settling on its final release date. Image: Starfield will allow players to design their own ships.

New game from bethesda