Starfield Wasn't Anywhere Near Successful Enough" – Former Bethesda Developer Says Starfield 2 Most Likely Won't Be Released

Former Starfield lead systems designer Kurt Kuhlmann believes a sequel to Bethesda's space RPG is unlikely to ever happen. In an interview with FRVR, he explained that the first game wasn't successful enough for the studio to take on a sequel.

Kuhlmann worked at Bethesda Game Studios for over 20 years and left the studio after Starfield's release. Among other things, he was one of the lead designers on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. When asked whether Bethesda would ever want to release a new Starfield game, he answered bluntly:

I would be very surprised. I don't think Starfield was anywhere near successful enough to do a Starfield 2

Starfield launched in September 2023, and since then more than 15 million players have played it, while the game scored over 80 on Metacritic. However, many Bethesda fans saw it as a disappointment after Skyrim and Fallout 4. That's exactly why, in Kuhlmann's opinion, skipping a sequel would be a shame:

It's, in a way, too bad, because I think with the lessons learned on Starfield, a Starfield 2 could have been much closer to the game that Todd Howard. You can envision that game, you can imagine that game. That's not quite what Starfield really is

The developer also explained why Starfield didn't become a cohesive "dream game." He named a lack of people as the main problem:

Even with the size of the team that we had for Starfield, it wasn't big enough to create the amount of content that the grand idea of the game really required. Like, we needed way more

On top of that, many of the mechanics were new to the team, so designers had to wait for the systems to work before they could start filling them with content. As an example, Kuhlmann pointed to the outpost system, which in his view works well on its own but is barely connected to the story and missions, unlike the settlements in Fallout 4.

It's worth noting that this is only the personal opinion of a former developer, not Bethesda's official position. The company is currently focused on The Elder Scrolls VI, but it continues to release updates and DLC for Starfield, since more than 17 million players have played it.