The original plan for the “Shattered Space” DLC for “Starfield” was to kick off a new era for Bethesda’s controversial space game IP, recreating memories of the studio’s excellent DLCs in the past, such as “Far Harbor” for “Fallout 4”. But since its launch at the end of last month (9.30), things have not gone as planned.
“Starfield” was launched in September 2023, which is Bethesda’s first new IP in many years and the first major single-player game since Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media in March 2021. A year later, “Shattered Space” has a “mostly negative” user rating on Steam, as players complained about everything from not being worth the price to boring mission design.
Now, Emil Pagliarul, design director at Bethesda Game Studios, has responded to a fan’s concerns. The fan is not only worried about Starfield and its DLC “Shattered Space”, but also panicked about the direction of Bethesda’s entire studio. The concerns stem from an interview with Pagliarulo by the media GamesRadar, during which Pagliarulo enthusiastically promoted the expansion pack that was criticized by fans. The fan said that this showed that Bethesda was dismissive of the community’s concerns.
Pagliarulo then responded directly to the fan in a series of tweets.
Pagliarulo confirmed that most of the missions and levels of the “Shattered Space” DLC were developed by designers who have participated in Bethesda’s previous games and DLCs, dating back to the 2002 masterpiece “The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind”, “They are very good at their jobs, this is obvious.”
Pagliarulo continued: “If people haven’t played Shattered Space and like Starfield, I think they’re missing out (on the DLC). If people have played Shattered Space and still don’t like it, it makes me sad, honestly. But you know, we’ve heard from a lot of people who like it, too.”
Later, Pagliarulo also explained the reason for the obvious gap between his views and fan reactions.
“Maybe this is a game with high expectations. Fans have a lot of expectations, and we will do everything we can to meet them. What I can tell you is that no one at Bethesda, and I mean no one, is complacent and ignores our players.”
Now that “Broken Space” has been launched, fans want to know what’s next for “Starfield”. In June of this year, Bethesda director Todd said that the company is committed to supporting “Starfield”, which has 14 million players on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and confirmed that at least one other story expansion will be released after “Broken Space”. Todd said that Bethesda’s goal is to release a story expansion pack every year “hopefully for a long time.”
Pagliarulo reiterated this commitment of support and said that Bethesda will continue to address community concerns and fixes while “listening to fans all the way.”
“Starfield is a big game, and we need time to solve problems. We will move as quickly and as safely as possible. Game development is always tricky, but for a game as big as “Starfield”, every fix may break something else.
In closing, I’d like to say this… I love games. I love Bethesda’s games. All I want to do, or anyone here, is make these games and then make them better. No egos. No arrogance. Just a lot of hard work and appreciation for the fans.”
It’s been a busy time for the 450-person Bethesda Game Studios, which currently operates five teams: Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6, Fallout 76, Mobile, and External Development Partnerships. The studio is working on the aforementioned Elder Scrolls 6, Fallout 76, various mobile games, updates to older games, and the next Fallout.
But will there be a sequel to Starfield? If there is, it may be a while before we see it, as The Elder Scrolls 6 isn’t expected to launch until 2028 at the earliest, with another Fallout game not far behind.