Starfield's Underwhelming Ending Finally Explained By Developer

's lead quest designer has explained why the ending was so underwhelming for many. Prior to its launch, Bethesda marketed the game as being an epic space adventure, spanning over 1000 planets, and while it was extremely well received by critics at launch, its popularity soon seemed to dwindle with players, with complaints that many planets seemed empty and ultimately, there wasn't as much to do as they wanted.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Starfield]While some of the missions in were on par with other Bethesda titles, 's lead quest designer Will Shen — who has since left Bethesda — believes the studio hit the "" when it came to creating the game's final mission due to running out of time. As reported by , when speaking at the 2024 Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, Chen stated that ""

Shen turned to 's senior level designer, Steve Cornett, for help delivering a finale to the game. According to Shen, Cornett was the one who came up with the dimension-hopping concept in which players become one of the Starborn, finding the Unity and crossing over into another dimension.

This triggered a kind of New Game Plus where decisions are wiped, and the story can be replayed or skipped entirely on the next playthrough. Although some elements aren't quite as players remember from a previous playthrough, it ultimately created a cyclical narrative. While some would argue this was a fun twist on the New Game Plus idea, from a technical perspective, this allowed to reuse earlier areas of the game in the ending, cutting down the time and resources needed massively.

2024 will see the launch of 's first DLC,. While Bethesda hasn't revealed any official information surrounding the expansion, many are hopeful that something of its size will add plenty of new content, such as new locations, major quests, items, gameplay, and ultimately, a new story campaign. How this expansion will impact the already cyclical loop of 's current narrative is yet to be