Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard is setting the record straight about what players should expect from Starfield’s next major content drop. In a recent appearance on Kinda Funny, Howard made it clear that the forthcoming update is not the sweeping overhaul some fans had been hoping for, drawing a firm line between what’s coming and the kind of transformative 2.0 update that rescued Cyberpunk 2077’s reputation.
“It is not Starfield 2.0,” Howard stated plainly, as reported by IGN and GameSpot. He described the new content as updates that alter the game “not in an isolated way, but sort of meta,” promising fresh uses of outer space and mechanics the team hasn’t explored before. For existing fans who already enjoy the game, Howard expressed confidence they’ll be thrilled. But he was remarkably candid about the update’s limitations, acknowledging that players who bounced off Starfield or found it dull likely won’t have their minds changed.
The comments come after a closed-door preview late last year gave a handful of community members an early look at what Bethesda has been working on. While some attendees expressed excitement, others cautioned that the scope of the changes was relatively modest — a far cry from the dramatic rework that CD Projekt Red delivered for Cyberpunk 2077. Howard’s remarks now confirm that measured assessment, even as he noted the studio is “really happy” with what it has produced.
Bethesda’s roadmap for Starfield has hit several bumps since the game’s 2023 launch. The first expansion, Shattered Space, arrived in September 2024 to a largely negative reception on Steam, and reports indicated that weak sales led the studio to delay its planned second story expansion. That upcoming DLC, teased last fall with the words “Terran Armada,” is widely expected to launch alongside the update Howard discussed. Howard remained vague on exact timing but told fans they would hear details “soonish.”
Adding further intrigue to Starfield’s near-term future are persistent rumors that the game is headed to PlayStation 5, potentially in April with both standard and deluxe editions. A simultaneous PS5 launch and second expansion release would give Bethesda a chance to attract an entirely new audience while re-engaging lapsed players. Meanwhile, a rumored Nintendo Switch 2 port appears to have been either shelved or canceled entirely.
For now, the message from Bethesda’s leadership is one of tempered honesty: the team believes in the work it’s done, but it isn’t pretending the update will reinvent the game from the ground up. Whether that measured approach satisfies a player base hungry for deeper changes remains to be seen once the full details are finally revealed.