Xbox Boss Addresses Comparisons Between Starfield and Skyrim

During an interview with The Washington Post in 2021, Bethesda Game Studios Executive Producer Todd Howard referred to Starfield as “Skyrim in Space.” That comparison quickly caught on with Xbox fans, but with Starfield set to drop in 2023, it remains to be seen just how much the two games will have in common. During a recent appearance on the Friends Per Second podcast, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty was asked about the comparison, and was quick to say that players should not expect a simple “reskin” of Skyrim from Howard and the rest of the team.

“I’m confident that he’snot going to sit still on what was builtbefore, right, this isn’t… it’s not his approach to come in and kind ofreskin something, right? So, there’s goingto be an awful lot of things that moveforward with this game you know just from my view, a little bit from theoutside looking in, in the case ofBethesda, the things that excite me first are just the visual style which,you know, for lack of something better I would call this kind of ‘NASA punk.’ Youknow it’s very inspired by the conceptart of the late 70s early 80s, so it has a little bit of a sort of retro cassettekind of feel to it, which is prettyunique, pretty cool. And just the things that it bringsinto the game which almost given thegenre you are just you have to have and be almost one of those ‘how could you notput that in there?’ So you know, the shipbuilding, the space combat, the world exploration… I think there’s going to bean awful lot of new stuff that Bethesdafans and Todd Howard fans have not seen brought to the game.”

Starfield might be the most highly-anticipated Xbox game of 2023, so it will be interesting to see if it can deliver on the hype. Skyrim fans will probably find a lot to enjoy, but it remains to be seen how much the two games will actually have in common. For now, fans will just have to wait and see for themselves!

Starfield is set to release in 2023 on PC, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X. In the meantime, readers can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.

Are you looking forward to Starfield? Do you think the game will be more than just “Skyrim in space?” Letus knowinthe comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!