Starfield could be a cross-gen game says Betheda’s Todd Howard

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Bethesda’s mysterious Starfield is “something that will handle next-generation hardware,” says Todd Howard.

Starfield is the new single-player RPG in the works at Bethesda, and despite hinting that it might be a next-gen title, studio boss Todd Howard has indicated that game may be cross-gen after all.

Howard referred to Starfield as “next-gen” during the E3 reveal, and Eurogamer recently asked Howard for further clarification on the statement.

“That to us means two things,” Howard said. “It does mean hardware and it does mean software on our side, and it also means gameplay – what does the next generation of epic single-player RPGs feel like to us?

“What systems we put it out on – what’s the hardware requirements – is still to be determined. We’re pushing it; we’re thinking very, very far in future so we’re building something that will handle next-generation hardware. That’s what we’re building on right now, that’s where our mind is, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t exist on the current systems as well.”



The studio has been thinking about making the game since 2004, but began working on it in 2015, after the launch of Fallout 4.

The devs wanted to make either a post-apocalyptic or sci-fi game, with Howard saying that the studio would have made its own IP if it hadn’t gotten Fallout from Interplay in 2004. Sci-fi was the second choice “at the time”.

He describes Starfield as “different” but added that “if you sit down and play it you would recognise it as something we made if that makes sense? It has our DNA in it. It has things that we like.”