“I thought that the game would never come out”: Bethesda was afraid that Starfield could be too ambitious project
After eight long years of development and many presentations, Starfield finally came out, and it seems that the head of Bethesda Game Studios Todd Howard wants to share his impressions. The day before, he not only sent congratulatory letters to all employees who gave his time to develop the game, but also turned to the press in which he admitted with what experiences the studio created this grandiose RPG.
In a letter, with a sense of deep respect, he spoke about the process of creating the game and his impressions of it, saying that he was once afraid to be too ambitious because Starfield will never be perfect.
We are very lucky that we were able to create a series of games so beloved by everyone as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. But we still could not get rid of the idea of creating galactic adventures that could only be implemented in the game, so we began to create the first new IP and the most ambitious in 25 years.
We finished work on the first Starfield concept art back in 2013, more than 10 years ago, ”Todd explained in a letter published on Twitter.
The development began at the end of 2015 with a small team after the release of Fallout 4. Development of a concept, design and creation of a new technology that we dreamed about . We took much more time than we expected. By 2020, when the world has already been turned upside down, our team has already earned at full capacity – 275 people. I had to work in a completely new way, adapting to numerous changes in our lives, including the death of the founder of the company and absorbing its Xbox unit.
For a long time we thought that this game may have never been destined to come true, perhaps we were really too ambitious, having bitten too much and not chewing. The development process is never straight, it is often winding and dangerous. I am incredibly proud that the team showed passion and devotion to the cause to create something really special.
Then Todd thanked the team of developers and localizers, as well as on behalf of all Bethesda employees, he thanked the reviewers for finding time to play Starfield and shared their ideas with the world: "We are touched and flattered". In the last paragraph, he wrote:
The creation of Starfield was one of the most difficult and exciting events in our career, we will never forget this process, and now that our mission has approached the final chapter, we are passing the baton to you, with which the real trip began, and we hope that Starfield That was worth it.
In the past, Todd Howard already talked about the uneven development process of Starfield. More recently, he said that the game became truly interesting only in the seventh year of development, which is quite late even by game standards. Discussing the Starfield gameplay, Todd said: "I thought we would learn about it before".