Starfield space travel is "like flight in the '40s, it's dangerous" says Todd Howard

An image illustration of Bethesda's Todd Howard before the Starfield.

We knew Starfield wouldn't be making a proper appearance at the Bethesda E3 2019 conference, but we did get some new information on the game from an unlikely source: a sit-down between Bethesda boss Todd Howard, E3 Coliseum producer Geoff Keighley, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. In particular, as our friends at PC Gamer reported, Howard discussed how space travel works in Starfield - and how perilous it can be. 

"Traveling in space in our game, I want to say it's like flight in the '40s, like it's dangerous," Howard said. "It's still dangerous to go and explore, even though lots of people do it." But while the risks of space travel in Starfield are comparable to early flight, Howard also stressed that the game is set in the far future. And if you're worried that Starfield will be a technical sim like Kerbal Space Program - which is a great game, but not everyone's bag - put those worries to rest. Howard also said "we have to gamify it some so that it's not as punishing as actual space travel." 

We still don't know much about Starfield, but we do know it's a single-player sci-fi RPG, not a hyper-realistic space sim. So while space travel will clearly be a critical part of Starfield, I don't think managing your hull's interior, rationing fuel, calculating return orbits, or similar technical details will be a big part of the game. My impression is that Starfield will present players with hazards to avoid and risks to manage without overwhelming them with dials and resources. I'm picturing air locks, solar flares, asteroid collisions and things like that, but that's just speculation on my part.

Whatever Starfield has in store for us in the great vacuum of space, we won't find out for a few years at least. Bethesda is actively working on Starfield and parts of it are even playable at the company, but Howard has repeatedly advised players to be "very, very patient" when it comes to Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6.

Here are all the E3 2019 games which were shown this year.  

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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