Yahoo Finance Starfield director Todd Howard exclusive: I want everybody to be able to play my games in some fashion
Xbox's E3 2021 showcase pulled back a little more of the curtain on Starfield, the sprawling new space epic being developed by RPG masters Bethesda Games Studios.
Due for release in November 2022, the game is being overseen by veteran Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Todd Howard, who confirmed to Telegraph Gaming in an exclusive interview that it is "very much a next gen game" which will only be playable on "high end PCs" and the newer Xbox Series X and S consoles."By focusing on those platforms, you really get to lean in a lot on making it the best it can be for those systems,” he explained.
“The hardware definitely helps us do a lot of things with loading and fidelity. But, you know, graphics fidelity is graphics fidelity. I don't want to come across as like the graphics fidelity is a barrier, do you know what I mean?
"It's really about focus, that's what I would say. It's nice to put the bar high, obviously, but it's really good to be able to focus and say this is what we're creating, and here is the bar. Oftentimes, that is governed by just the timing of where you're at, and where the hardware is at. We're really fortunate that we get to set the bar really, really high.”
Howard also spoke about the effects on Starfield of Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda Game Studios’ parent company ZeniMax Media for US$7.5bn in March 2021 - and hinted that the door might still not be completely closed for PlaySation.
“Well the good news is we’ve worked together with [Microsoft] for so long. Going back since [2002’s seminal Elder Scrolls title] Morrowind, every game I’ve done we’ve had a pretty deep partnership and developed technology together and other things. We gave a lot of thought to where we want to end up, and we talked to Microsoft for a long time about potentially doing something like that.
“And so, it’s been great, their support for what we want to do, their support for all game creators. We love their platforms, and really the people there. We have a lot of deep friendships. And at the end of the day I think it’s going to allow us to make the best stuff we ever have.”
As a result of the deal Starfield will only launch on Microsoft's home consoles. Did Howard have any reservations about effectively being forced to pick a side in this way?
“'Pick a side' meaning… PlayStation? Is that what you mean? Well.. a little bit. You don’t ever want to leave people out, right? But at the end of the day, your ability to focus and say, this is the game I want to make, these are the platforms I want to make it on, and being able to really lean in on those is going to make for a better product.
“And we’re big believers in all of the avenues that Xbox and Microsoft are doing to get games to more people. Whether that’s the integration with the PC, which is huge for us, the cloud streaming and all those things. So I think it’s about taking a long term view. And our belief that those things are really fundamentally good. So we see it actually opening up more and more and more so that people’s ability to play our games - via GamePass and other things - their ability to play our games doesn’t go down. It goes up dramatically.
“And I can say I’m proud to be part of Xbox. I think it’s great for the community of gamers.”
As a gamer, is there part of Howard that regrets his games won’t be playable on PlayStations anymore?
“Well, we’re still…” Howard begins before correcting himself. “I will just say I want everybody to have the ability to play it in some fashion.”
Howard also revealed some of the challenges of developing a AAA blockbuster during a global pandemic. Bethesda have been actively working on Stafield for over eight years now but the unique circumstances of the last 18 months required the dev teams, spread across four locations in Maryland, Montreal and Texas, to adapt to remote working.
"We went from four locations to 400 locations," Howard quipped, before explaining the biggest workflow changes have been connected to how the various teams share their latest builds of the game. "A build of a game can be a lot of data and so we've had to do some new engineering around how the game is given to people. There's been some really cool work some parts of our company have done to let people stream the game and someone else control it."
Howard remains optimistic working practices and conditions across the industry will change for the better once restrictions ease, with lessons learned on improving work/life balances being taken forward.
"I think it's naive to say, we'll just go back to the way it was because there are positives from that come out of working like this as well," he explained. One of those positives is a reaffirmation of the role video games play in consumers' lives.
"I think we're actually quite lucky that more people went to video games [during the pandemic], it made you remember how important the work is to people. I found that really rewarding. Creating this kind of entertainment for people, it gave you a good sense of purpose. We're very, very lucky compared to most people to be able to do this."
Now read Todd Howard's guide to the secrets and easter eggs hidden in the Starfield reveal trailer.
And come back to Telegraph Gaming on Monday for our in-depth exclusive interview with Todd Howard in which he explains Starfield’s genesis, how it compares to the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 4, and answers the question: what do you actually do in the game?
