Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design - but that’s not boring, Bethesda insists

rockpapershotgun.com:

Bethesda has rallied behind their decision to deliberately include vast planets full of nothing in Starfield, insisting that it’s all by design. The effect is to make the player appreciate the vastness of the galaxy they’re in and experience the loneliness of space, apparently - and it’s not boring, honest.

That’s according to managing director Ashley Cheng, who told the New York Times that the devs approached Starfield’s universe with the belief that not every planet “is supposed to be Disney World”.

Starfield’s planets have come in for a good amount of internet chatter lately, with players discovering that not all planets are made equal as they venture further into the game’s universe. In fact, as it turns out, a lot of planets are actually pretty empty.

That’s a feature, not a bug, when it comes to Starfield’s attempt to lean into its starry-eyed depiction of travelling the vast cosmos, Cheng insisted - and it also goes back to the game’s slightly harder sci-fi influences, which aims to sprinkle in more realism and a deeper sense of place in the universe than your typical sci-fi romp.

"The point of the vastness of space is you should feel small. It should feel overwhelming," Cheng explained. "Everyone's concerned that empty planets are going to be boring. But when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored."

In short, it sounds like if you’re bored with wandering empty planets, that’s probably on you and you should better immerse yourself in the dream of being an interplanetary traveller and just enjoy staring at moon dust for another few hours.

That’s a feeling echoed by director and Bethesda big (space) cheese Todd Howard, who argued that having a smaller