How long has the longest-played video game lasted for you? If you’re a ‘World of Warcraft‘ player, the answer is probably “many years,” but typically after a month, the hype decreases, the desire to try other things sets in, and the trendy game ends up being a bit neglected. It’s the law of life. But Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft, hopes that you’ll play ‘Starfield’ for the next decade. Phew.
A stellar purpose
Bethesda‘s new release hasn’t pleased everyone. In fact, it has garnered quite a lot of criticism from people who found it repetitive. Active player counts on Steam have dropped astonishingly from an average of 145,882 at launch to 20,302 two months later, and the Game Awards decided to overlook it in their Game of the Year nominations. Yet, at Xbox, they continue to hold an unusual level of confidence in it.
In fact, when Phil Spencer was asked at Comic-Con Brazil if they intended for ‘Starfield’ to be played twelve years after release, much like ‘Skyrim‘ continues to be, his response was, “That’s our goal.” To achieve this, they’re still developing the ‘Shattered Space’ DLC with the aim of fostering space exploration, similar to how the sequel to ‘The Elder Scrolls’ expanded on dungeon crawling.
“I have a lot of confidence that ‘Starfield‘ will remain very significant for many, many years,” he concluded, without clarifying whether he’s concerned about the dwindling player base or the fact that in a year filled with triple-A masterpieces, it ended up passing by like a breeze. Will we still be talking about Bethesda’s game in 2035? It’s possible, but allow us to have doubts.
