Starfield is being viewed by many as Bethesda's chance at redemption. For a long while, Bethesda was known as a premiere RPG maker, putting out one hit after another and achieving unprecedented success with The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim in 2011. Unfortunately, Bethesda's reputation of putting out consistently high-quality game releases took a major blow with 2018's Fallout 76, an online multiplayer game that was panned by fans and critics alike.
Starfield is Bethesda's first major new release since the missteps it made with Fallout 76, and many are interested to see if it will repair the company's reputation. So far, fans seem cautiously optimistic about Starfield based on what they've seen of the game. Some are excited about Starfield's incredibly ambitious scope, while others are worried that Bethesda may have bitten off more than it can chew.
Time will tell how Starfield fares, but in the meantime, a report has indicated that the open world sci-fi RPG may be partly to blame for Fallout 76's problems. Kotaku published a report earlier this month detailing the troubled development behind Fallout 76 claims that Todd Howard basically neglected work on Fallout 76 to focus his attention on Starfield. Citing one of its sources, Kotaku's report states that "Howard was supposed to be in the charge of the game," yet was mostly concerned with Starfield. Conversely, the Kotaku report says another source described Howard as a "decent executive producer."
It should be noted that Todd Howard was not the director of Fallout 76, so even if he was supposed to be "in charge" of the game, it would make sense that his efforts would be mostly focused on Starfield. While Howard is the game director of Starfield, he served in an executive producer role for Fallout 76. Howard has served as game director for Bethesda's biggest projects, including Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Fallout 4, so Fallout 76 is the outlier.
The report mentions a decision that Todd Howard allegedly made about Fallout 76 that proved to be one of the biggest sticking points for the game's critics when it launched in 2018. While they have since been added to the game, Fallout 76 launched without NPCs. This reportedly went against the wishes of many of the game's developers, but was something that the higher-ups wanted, with Howard specifically mentioned in the report.
Regardless, Fallout 76 updates have ensured that the game is in a much better place now than when it first launched, and many Bethesda fans are excited to see what Starfield has in store. It will be interesting to see if it lives up to the hype come launch in 2023.
Fallout 76 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Kotaku