Bethesda is targeting annual story expansions for Starfield

Bethesda is currently hoping to release Starfield story expansions on an annual basis.

That’s according to game director Todd Howard, who discussed the company’s plans for expanding the sci-RPG in an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays.

“I would say more or less, yeah,” he said when asked if Bethesda plans to release story expansions for the game on an annual basis.

“How long that continues [for is uncertain], hopefully a very long time, but we’re planning for the one after this, so there will be another one.”

Bethesda is currently gearing up to launch the game’s first story expansion, Shattered Space, later this year.

“A mysterious power stirs in the city of Dazra on House Va’ruun’s hidden homeworld,” reads the description accompanying a Shattered Space trailer released this month.

“Investigate a frightening cosmic threat, explore a new planet, and find unique weapons, spacesuits, and gear in this all-new adventure.”

In terms of scope, Howard likened Shattered Space to Fallout 4’s Far Harbor expansion.

“One of the things that we always liked about if from the get-go, and I don’t think people realise, is that Shattered Space, the bulk of that expansion pack, once you get to the city and the planet, it takes place there,” he told MrMattyPlays.

“It allows us to build a landscape like we would traditionally do and have the city and the quests. And so, that story takes place there and the landscape’s kind of, content wise, we’re looking at kind of like what we did with Far Harbor on Fallout 4.

“This is a scope that works for our development in doing this kind of annual story expansion type of thing,” he added. “So, really excited about that, and it lets us kind of do some things the way we would in previous games, and give people not completely that experience because it’s still Starfield, but this new kind of alien world that you’re able to explore and it takes place there.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Howard said Bethesda has no plans to “rush” out a new single-player Fallout game to capitalise on the franchise’s current popularity.