'I Don’t Think Starfield Was Anywhere Near Successful Enough to Do a Starfield 2' – Former Bethesda Dev Casts Doubt on Sequel

Bethesda is still hard at work on new DLC for Starfield, but you probably shouldn't expect a sequel anytime soon.

Former Bethesda Lead Systems Designer Kurt Kuhlmann spoke to FRVR, and when he was asked about a potential Starfield sequel, he told the outlet: "I don’t think Starfield was anywhere near successful enough to do a Starfield 2."

That's not too surprising, as the game has been massively divisive since it came out, despite getting a mostly-positive review from us here at IGN. Our reviewer Dan Stapleton said: "Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist."

Kuhlmann then goes on to reminisce on the ambition of Starfield, and how a sequel could have done something great, saying "It’s, in a way, too bad, because I think with the lessons learned on Starfield, a Starfield 2 could have been much closer to the game that Todd [Howard] had [in mind]." Starfield has improved a lot since it first came out, and it's still has improvements down the pipeline, but it's pretty clear that it fell short of Todd Howard's ambitions ahead of its release.

Still, Howard reiterated Starfield's support back in July, when he put out a statement saying: "As we enter Year 3, we'll continue expanding the Settled Systems with new stories, targeted gameplay improvements, and additional updates, while preparing for the launch of new Starborn content next year." It's possible that despite Kuhlmann's predictions, these updates will be able to turn Starfield around, but it's unlikely.

Instead, it seems like Bethesda is entirely focused on getting The Elder Scrolls VI out the door (even if it's still likely a couple years away), and Obsidian has been tapped to develop a new Fallout game. Even if a new Starfield game was somehow in the works, it'd be years before we ever heard about it. It's probably safe to assume that it's not going to happen any time in the near future.