Even Todd Howard is "surprised" at how big Starfield is

Even Starfield's game director is surprised at the size of the new RPG.

Earlier today on March 8, Bethesda finally announced Starfield's long-awaited, delayed release date via the video below. Partway through, Starfield game director Todd Howard appears with a personal message, revealing that everyone at Bethesda is pouring everything they've got into Starfield, and even he's "surprised" at how big the entire thing is.

"From myself and everyone else here at Bethesda, we are so excited to finally tell you when Starfield is coming out this year," Howard begins in the video. "We have poured ourselves into this game and even I'm surprised at how much we can pour," the director continues; "It is large."

Starfield's size will be familiar ground to those who've been following Howard's comments for a while. Last year in August, the director revealed Starfield had over 100 systems and 1000 planets in total, all of which could be freely explored in full with player-driven discoveries.

Following this, Starfield fans were divided over the 1,000 planets. Some couldn't decide if this would mean some planets were left barren and uninteresting, while others were all-in on the sheer volume of game space available to explore. Even though we know just how many planets Starfield will boast, it sounds like we'll be even more surprised at the RPG's true size later this year.

Starfield launches on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S. Before then, the Starfield Direct will air in June, giving us another deep dive into the new game from Howard and company.

Head over to our upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for a look at all the other exclusives Xbox has on the slate.