Bethesda has just announced its massive Starfield Free Lanes update which brings free space travel to the massive sci-fi RPG. Coming alongside the game’s PS5 port and new Terran Armada DLC, this sounds like a swansong for the game, but that’s not the case.
While Bethesda continues work on The Elder Scrolls 6 and pre-production on Fallout 5, the Starfield team is not being disbanded. As a major passion project for the studio, despite the game’s shortcomings, the team has confirmed “years” of additional updates are still planned.
Speaking to press following the Starfield Free Lanes announcement, lead creative producer Tim Lamb explained that the journey with Starfield isn’t over quite yet. While the developer did not confirm what plans are in store for the RPG, there are ideas cooking in the background for fans.
“Look, when we make a game, our plan is always to support it for a number of years after launch,” Lamb said in a roundtable interview, adding that “there’s places the team still wants to explore” within the game’s unique universe.
“We plan to support Starfield for years,” Lamb told press in a separate interview shared with FRVR, “and we do have long-term plans, but I don’t have anything to announce right now.”
Lamb explained that Bethesda is still “actively working on Starfield”, although its not known how many developers are currently on the sci-fi RPG compared to the studio’s other projects. While Lamb didn’t touch on any content in particular, the producer explained that “there’s more lore and more ideas we want us to pursue”.
With these new updates, Lamb explained that Bethesda “wouldn’t frame it as [a] ‘2.0’” moment for Starfield. “We’ve incrementally improved a lot of systems and added substantial content, and I think this is the best version of Starfield, but ‘2.0’ isn’t really how I’d describe it,” the producer said.
With that in mind, maybe one day we will see a fully realised version of the game that makes it more coherent, as former Starfield devs would put it. As more updates come for the game, Free Lanes may not be the only game-changing addition Bethesda makes to the RPG, but when could we see the next content drop?
In an interview with YouTuber Mr Matty Plays back in 2024, Bethesda head Todd Howard announced that Bethesda was planning for annual expansions with Starfield. While this could no longer be the case, Lamb’s comments seem to support an additional DLC for the sci-fi game—or at least some major updates—are still planned to launch on an annual release schedule.
In a universe as vast and multiversal as Starfield’s, there are unlimited possibilities for what could occur with future instalments. We won’t be seeing a Starfield 2 for a long time, but it’s clear that Bethesda is still planning to support the sci-fi game, despite the title’s online flaming. As someone who genuinely enjoys the game, it’s exciting to see real growth, and even more exciting to hear that there’s additional ideas in the works for the future. While Starfield hasn’t hit the same as Fallout or Skyrim, the game still has a dedicated community, and with some of these major changes, that community will hopefully grow.
