It hasn’t even been a month among us, and Starfield is already a massive success. The latest figures released by Bethesda spoke of 10 million copies sold, and considering the immense success of Skyrim, the company’s record-holder par excellence, the numbers could skyrocket to unsuspected heights.
The widespread acceptance of Starfield can be attributed to several factors. In brief, it’s due to the “hype factor” that Bethesda games always carry (even with significant setbacks like Fallout 76), combined with a focus on a different theme, a game that has been very polished upon release (a significant novelty), and, above all, the sheer multitude of activities available.
Even in a world where gamers have less time to spare due to life obligations, there are still many players who prefer to invest a significant portion of their lives in a few games, or even just one, dedicating countless hours.
This is something Bethesda is well aware of, as stated in recent remarks by Todd Howard, the company’s director: “(Starfield) is a game intentionally designed to be played for a long time,” he said in an interview on Game Maker’s Notebook. “One thing we’ve learned from our previous games, like Skyrim, like Fallout, is that people want to play them for a long time.”
Howard also mentions in the interview, which can be seen on the channel of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, that the ability to continuously update games extends their “lifespan” for a long time.
“One thing I’ve noticed is that, as games are played for a long time, the possibility of updating them over time creates games that people are playing right now that have been on the market for a long time, with years of updates, and that creates an expectation,” he said.
Knowing Bethesda, these statements shouldn’t surprise anyone. In fact, most of us are already thinking about the future DLCs for Starfield and letting our imagination run wild about what we will be able to do in them. And all of this, considering that next year the modding community will have official tools to do just about anything.
