Bethesda teases 2024 plans for Starfield

We're almost out of 2023, but after sharing some player stats, Bethesda outlined what we've got coming up for Starfield next year.

Heidi Nicholas

Published 21 Dec 2023

Despite its shortcomings, Starfield has been one of the biggest launches of 2023, and it seems Bethesda's got a lot planned for next year too. While sharing some player stats and confirming the game as their biggest ever launch, the team shared a glimpse of what's coming next.

We knew already that Starfield will add city maps and "new ways of traveling", and Bethesda expands on this a little. From February, Starfield will get updates spaced about six weeks apart, adding game improvements as well as content and "feature updates."

After listening to player feedback, Bethesda will be adding "new ways to travel" and city maps for the big cities, as well as "expanding on ship customization with ship decorations, new ship building options, and more."

Starfield will also get new gameplay options. "With these new settings you'll be able to alter your gameplay to allow for an easier or more challenging experience that will expand beyond our normal 'Difficulty' setting," Bethesda says. "These will allow you to easily customize carry capacity, cargo access distance, ship damage, vendor credits, how you suffer afflictions, new survival mechanics, and more."

There's also word on mod support: "Beginning early next year, Starfield will be getting its own exporter and you’ll have access to a new Creation Kit."

According to Bethesda's player stats, the game has picked up 13 million players since September, with an average playtime of 40 hours per player (22,284,331 days played overall). While soaring around the starfield, players have spent over 26,000,000 hours building ships and have visited over 1,970,000,000 planets. The faction responsible for the most player deaths are the Ecliptics, while the Ashta has been the most lethal lifeform.

Lastly, Bethesda says that Shattered Space (the first big expansion for the game) will bring new story content, new locations, gear, and more to Starfield next year. We'll keep an eye out for this, and for whether it'll bring any new Starfield achievements with it.

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Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.