Skyrim's Modders Might Be Starfield's Secret Weapon

ign.com:

In the June 2023 Xbox Games Showcase, Corporate Vice President of Xbox Sarah Bond opened her segment by promising "a deep dive into one of the most important RPGs ever made– Starfield."

That is quite the claim. It’s true that Starfield is looking to be an absolutely massive game, perhaps one of the largest in scope we’ve ever seen. And it’s also true that between Skyrim’s continued dominance in the public mindshare and the impressive showing in the recent Direct, excitement for Starfield is at an all-time high.

But while the bespoke created content in Starfield looks promising, what really could give it limitless potential is the modding scene. I spoke to several high-profile modders of Skyrim to better understand their community and their process, and came away with a prevailing theme: the modders keeping Skyrim alive might just be Starfield’s secret weapon.

While asking about Skyrim’s longevity and Starfield’s potential in the modding space, three distinct factors seemed to be the most important: the setting of Skyrim, the continuing familiarity with the engine, and the modding community that keeps in constant contact.

Anyone familiar with the Skyrim modding scene, or just modding in general, will have heard of Nexus Mods, as it’s one of the most active locations for the distribution of PC gaming mods. Skyrim Special Edition consistently ranks at the top of the popularity charts, and it doesn’t seem to be budging anytime soon, as it still outperforms a more recent Bethesda game, Fallout 4.

So why is Skyrim so popular in the modding scene? I asked DylanJames, a freelance musician and music producer who is also the creator of several popular audio mods, namely Regional Sounds Expansion, Reverb Interior Sounds Expansion, and