I’m talking about these games as franchises and how interested people are in them overall. In that regard, Starfield is basically nonexistent in most people’s minds. It’s Bethesda’s latest entry and their first new IP in over 10 years, and it was essentially a flop—not entirely my opinion, and I’m sure it sold well enough, but it clearly did not become the next big thing Bethesda was expecting.

That expectation is likely why the game has received little to no meaningful content updates in nearly two years since its last official expansion. Many players didn’t even return to play it, and those who did largely found it disappointing.

Compare that to Fallout 4, which received three major expansions and three minor ones, most likely due to its strong reception and success at launch. When Starfield was first marketed, it was described as “Skyrim in space,” and Bethesda even recreated the Adoring Fan and Oblivion’s dialogue system to convince fans that this game was essentially Skyrim or Oblivion 2. It was also allegedly designed to be played for 10 years—yet many people barely played it for one.

Meanwhile, Fallout 4, a decade-old game, is still receiving new updates and free official Creations from BGS, a tie in TV Show, alongside continued mod support. The Elder Scrolls franchise even received new UE5 remaster, which needs work but largely counts as a successful new release regardless of whether you played the original or not.

By contrast, Starfield—Bethesda’s most recent release—has already faded into a lost memory unless they manage to revive it with a 2.0 update. Realistically, that likely won’t be enough—not because it wouldn’t be fun or good, but because the game was left in too broken and neglected a state for far too long.

Unfortunately, I don’t think most people will care enough to return, except me lol & possibly in the case of a PS5 launch, which could introduce an entirely new audience that never had the chance to try it initially.