“The early days of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout were the same”: Todd Howard defends Starfield from criticism

In an interview with GamesRadar, Bethesda Game Studios head Todd Howard responded to criticism aimed at Starfield and Fallout 76 — two of the studio’s most divisive titles in recent years. According to him, there’s nothing fundamentally new about the situation.

Howard acknowledged that both games “stepped slightly off the main path” — the single-player RPGs Bethesda is known for. But he insists that both Starfield and Fallout 76 will eventually find their audience. Starfield recently received the Free Lanes update and the Terran Armada DLC — although players reacted lukewarmly, and its player count hasn’t grown. The PS5 version also raised concerns: according to Alinea Analytics, the game sold around 140,000 copies on PlayStation 5 in its first week — less than Ninja Gaiden 4 (257K), Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (245K), and The Outer Worlds 2 (160K) on the same platform.

Fallout 76, on the other hand, is doing relatively well and continues to evolve: the latest update, The Backwoods, introduced Bigfoot as a boss and reworked the event system. The game has also seen a boost in popularity thanks to the Amazon Prime Video series.

Do you think Howard is right — that Starfield just hasn’t found its audience yet? Or is this a different case, where the game simply doesn’t have long-term potential? Share your thoughts in the comments.