Even a studio with Bethesda’s pedigree can struggle to meet sky-high expectations. Starfield, Bethesda’s 2023 sci‑fi RPG, is no exception: it impressed many players but — compared with long‑running hits like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls — it hasn’t maintained the same lasting impact. One developer points to procedural generation as a key factor.
Bruce Nesmith, a veteran game designer and Dungeons & Dragons luminary who worked on titles including Oblivion, Skyrim and Starfield, told FRVR in a recent interview that the game’s thousands of planets often feel effectively empty. Read the interview on FRVR.
Nesmith argues that when many worlds begin to blend into one another and fail to spark curiosity or surprise, the experience unravels. He describes that repetition — planets feeling “very samey” — as where the game loses momentum.
Nesmith also explained that much of his contribution to Starfield involved the astronomical data underpinning the universe, but he notes a central challenge: space itself is often narratively sparse. According to him, the void of space — “literally described as nothingness” — doesn’t inherently provide the moments of excitement players seek while exploring.
Because of that lack of variety and surprisal, Nesmith leans toward blaming procedural generation for preventing Starfield from achieving the enduring status of a game like 2006’s Oblivion. That said, Starfield remains well‑played: SteamDB lists solid concurrent player figures for both titles — Oblivion Remastered shows roughly 1,500 concurrent players for its age, while Starfield records around 2,900. Oblivion Remastered on SteamDB · Starfield on SteamDB.
“If the same game had come from another studio, it would likely have been received differently,” Nesmith observes. He doesn’t place Starfield in the same tier as Fallout or Skyrim, but he maintains that it’s a worthwhile game.
Two years after launch, Bethesda has been addressing player feedback and working to make space travel more rewarding: “Part of the team has been focused on space gameplay to make the travels there more rewarding.”
Source: gamesradar.com
