Starfield isn't just a Skyrim 'reskin' says head of Xbox Game Studios

Astronaut looking at big alien monster
(Image credit: Bethesda)

It's the second week of November. The leaves are turning, the days are getting shorter, the stress of the approaching holidays has begun gnawing at your nerves. This is all very familiar, but doesn't it feel like something is missing this year? What could it be?

Oh right, it's Starfield, Bethesda's space RPG. Originally supposed to be released this Friday, 11/11/22, Starfield's release was sadly postponed into 2023. On the plus side, even if we can't play it this week, we can still talk about it.

Via GameSpot: Here's Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, who was recently interviewed by the Friends Per Second podcast presented on Skillup's YouTube channel. Booty answered questions about Halo, Game Pass, what it's like managing the game studios Microsoft owns, and finally, fielded a few questions about Bethesda's delayed space RPG. 

After noting the reception to the Starfield trailers has been largely positive, SkillUp's Ralph Panebianco observes that others have dismissed it as simply "Skyrim in space."

"Do you think it's Skyrim in space?" Panebianco asks. "If it's not Skyrim in space, what do you think really sets it apart? Where are you seeing that really evolves that Bethesda Game Studios model?"

"Having had the chance over the last year and a half or so to spend more time with Todd Howard and see how he works and see what he brings to game design, I'm confident he's not going to sit still on what was built before. It's just not his approach to come in and reskin something, right?" says Booty.

"The things that excite me first are the visual style. For lack of something better I'd call this NASA-punk," Booty says, a look inspired by the retro concept art of sci-fi in the '70s and '80s. He goes on to list some of Starfield's systems like ship-building, space combat, and planetary exploration. "I think there's gonna be an awful lot of new stuff Bethesda fans and Todd Howard fans have not seen brought to the game," Booty says.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

At the end of the interview Panebianco does his due diligence, casually asking for Starfield's release date. I mean, you never know, someone might slip up and let it fly one of these days. "3/3/23? Todd loves that shit," Panebianco says.

Alas, Booty just laughs. "3/3/23, no," he says. "No 4/4/24." So, at least we can rule out two dates for sure.

You can check out the interview with Matt Booty below, starting around 1:25:17.

TOPICS
PRODUCTS
Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
The creepiest guy leans in front of an NPC mid-conversation in Starfield.
Starfield promises it still exists as silence drives fans to space-madness, but it mostly just annoys everyone: 'They are deliberately choosing not to communicate more'
The Elder Scrolls 6 teaser trailer - the stylized logo "The Elder Scrolls VI" over a sweeping landscape of mountains and arid plains.
The Elder Scrolls 6: everything we know about the next return to Tamriel
Hollow Knight: Silksong — character art of Hornet, Silksong's protagonist, brandishing her weapon
Silksong's weary hollows tossed another scrap of hope from Xbox on high, as a blog post namedrops it next to other 'upcoming games'
The director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard, addresses the crowd about the new Fallout video game during the Bethesda E3 conference at LA Live in Los Angeles, California on June 10, 2018. - The three day E3 Game Conference begins on Tuesday June 12.
'I think geniuses come up with terrible ideas, too': Former senior artist at Bethesda likens Todd Howard's struggles with complete creative control to George Lucas
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
KOTOR remake returns for annual tradition of reminding you it's still alive, but no you can't hear anything more about it until it comes back next year to say it again
Latest in RPG
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway