Bethesda’s Todd Howard shared plenty of new details about two of the company’s most-wanted games. According to Howard, both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI will offer massive technical upgrades over previous games. If you don’t fancy watching the long interview, here’s a recap courtesy of Reddit.
For all the love Bethesda games get, the underlying technology is not one of them. It’s so bad, the studio’s titles are synonymous with old technology, bad animations, and bugs.
The in-house Creation Engine powered Bethesda’s popular action-RPG franchises for many years. Now we learn, that things are going to vastly improve going forward.
Bethesda’s new IP Starfield and the next Elder Scrolls use the newest version of the Creation Engine. Howard states that an unprecedented amount of work has gone into the engine.
We have more people doing engine work now by a factor of five. The overhaul in our engine is the largest we’ve probably ever had. -Todd Howard on the Creation Engine
Howard also reaffirms that Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI are pure single-player titles. That’s not to say Bethesda will never dabble in multi-player. At least for now, there are no plans however.
Furthermore, we learn that procedural generation plays a big role in the new games. But unlike other notable games that use the technology, like No Man’s Sky, Bethesda goes about things more carefully. Don’t expect massive game worlds that feel utterly devoid of anything to do. Handcrafted areas still play a major role.
Another notable talking point are NPCs. Expect to encounter plenty of them in large and sprawling cities. As expected, mod support remains a high-priority for Bethesda. Gamers can look forward to easy mod creation and thus plenty of community content in the next Elder Scrolls and Starfield.
Last but not least, we once again get confirmation that all future Bethesda games will be available on the Xbox Game Pass service on Day 1. A huge deal for value-oriented gamers.
There is no word on the release window for either game, but we know that Starfield will come out before Elder Scrolls VI.
