Xbox boss claims Starfield won’t be a Skyrim “reskin”

Bethesda’s Starfield will be so much more than Skyrim in space, according to the head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty. Here’s what he said.

Starfield is an upcoming sci-fi RPG developed and published by Bethesda. The game shares a lot of similarities with games like Skyrim, part of The Elder Scrolls series, and Bethesda’s other large RPG franchise, Fallout.

Those who’ve played games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim will be instantly familiar with some of the basic mechanics of Starfield, due to it sharing an engine with them. However, Starfield is a completely different game, one that is all about space exploration and existing on multiple planets.

Starfield will be a very different experience to Skyrim.

“Skyrim in space”

Starfield is set to be a much grander project than anything Bethesda has attempted before, but the game has been unable to shake the description as “Skyrim in space” since it was announced.

As originally reported by Gamespot, Xbox head Matt Booty spoke about Starfield in an interview with the Friends Per Second podcast. When asked if the game was Starfield in Space, Booty said:

“Having had the chance over the last year and a half or so to spend more time with Todd Howard and see how he works and see what he brings to game design, I’m confident he’s not going to sit still on what was built before. It’s just not his approach to come in and reskin something, right?”

FPS is back! This week we sat down with @mattbooty, Head of Microsoft Studios. We talk about his role, how different studios share ideas, his hopes for Halo and what he's most excited for in 2023. Ep 11 is live now on YouTube and podcast platforms.

==> https://t.co/AW2nN4e5ZE pic.twitter.com/lyMdqbZVU8

— Friends Per Second Podcast (@TheFPSPodcast) November 4, 2022

“The things that excite me first are the visual style. For lack of something better I’d call this NASA-punk. I think there’s gonna be an awful lot of new stuff Bethesda fans and Todd Howard fans have not seen brought to the game.”

Bethesda’s main franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout have always had some commonalities in terms of gameplay, mostly around how you explore and interact with NPCs. It seems likely that the game will carry some strands of Elder Scrolls and Fallout DNA, although it sounds as if those concerned that Starfield will be just Skyrim in space can rest assured.