Ex-Starfield designer doubts sequel will happen

A former lead designer on Starfield says he would be very surprised if Bethesda ever makes a sequel.

Kurt Kuhlmann, who served as lead systems designer on the space exploration role-playing game, made the comments in an interview with FRVR, as reported by Video Games Chronicle in a story published on 24 September 2026. He said he does not think the first game was anywhere near successful enough to justify a Starfield 2.

Kuhlmann said Starfield did not live up to the original vision of director Todd Howard. With the lessons learned on the first game, he said, a sequel could have been much closer to what Howard had in mind. That is his personal view, not a statement from the studio.

He also pointed to scale. Kuhlmann said the team was not big enough to create the amount of content the game's grand idea required. It needed way more people, he said.

That doubt sits alongside a different public message from the studio. In a note published on 17 July 2026, Bethesda Game Studios said Starfield continues and remains an important part of its future. In the same note, reported by Bethesda, the studio said the game had passed 17 million players to date, with almost a billion hours logged.

Older comments show how the sequel idea has shifted over time. In an interview published on 27 October 2024, veteran former Bethesda designer Bruce Nesmith said a potential sequel would be "one hell of a game". Todd Howard had earlier said Starfield was intentionally made to be played for a long time, in comments published on 1 October 2023.

For players, this leaves two pictures to hold at once. One designer looks back and sees a game that fell short of its ambition. The studio points to millions of players and says the journey is not finished.