Only 10% of Starfield's 1,000 planets will have life on them

Starfield is the upcoming sci-fi RPG from Bethesda that offers a vast galaxy for players to explore, and we couldn't be more excited.

Recently, we were not only treated to a gorgeous new gameplay trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase, but also a 45-minute deep dive from the developers at Bethesda. If excitement for this game wasn't already through the roof, it would be after its dedicated Starfield Direct event. As you would expect from just about any Bethesda RPG, players will be encouraged to explore, venture on epic quests, interact with NPCs, and make some story-defining choices.

Take a look at Starfield's latest trailer below.

One of the main appeals of Starfield is that not only will it feature the largest city that Bethesda has ever created, but it has over 1,000 planets to visit. However, with so many planets on offer, some players were concerned that most might be procedurally generated locations with a lack of life.

Well, as reported by IGN (via Kinda Funny Games), that concern has now been addressed and Bethesda chief Todd Howard has confirmed that only 10% of planets will have life on them. This may seem a little concerning at first, but it might not be all bad. For example, let’s say that all 1,000 planets had life. That would require an incredible amount of processing power, and can you imagine all the potential bugs and glitches that could occur? To look at things positively, even at 10%, that’s still over 100 planets with life and those planets will be quite large. Think of it as a large RPG which features over 100 detailed cities. That in its own right would be very impressive.

“For us, we view it as giving you [choices] when you look at a system. Here's the many things you could do," said Howard. "This could include visiting barren planets that are only there to collect resources, or planets with major cities and settlements for players to explore and progress the story in.”

He continued, “Obviously it's procedural, so there's no way we're going to go and handcraft an entire planet. What we do is we handcraft individual locations and some of those are placed specifically, [like] the main cities and other quest locations, and then we have a suite of them that are generated or placed when you land depending on that planet.”

In related news, Starfield is proving to be so popular, that it is single-handedly convincing players to purchase an Xbox Series X|S. However, the FTC claims that making Starfield an Xbox console exclusive is damaging Microsoft’s attempts to acquire Activision Blizzard.

Starfield will be released on 6 September 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S. It will also launch day one on Xbox Game Pass, which will soon have a price hike.