Bethesda Game Studios has made one thing clear: Starfield is not being abandoned. Despite major layoffs across Xbox and a renewed focus on established names such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, the studio says its space RPG “remains an important part of our future.”

New stories, gameplay improvements and additional Starborn content are already planned for the game. That is reassuring, especially for those who have invested hundreds of hours in the Settled Systems.

However, placing Starfield beside Bethesda’s two most successful franchises does not automatically give it the same status. Continued support can keep the game alive, but Bethesda still needs to prove that Starfield has a strong long-term identity of its own.

Big numbers do not tell the entire story

According to Bethesda, Starfield has attracted more than 17 million players who have spent nearly one billion hours inside its universe.

More than 40 percent of players have also used Creations, showing that community-made content has become an important part of the experience. Bethesda therefore plans to continue supporting creators and expanding its modding tools.

Those are impressive numbers, but they should be treated carefully. Starfield launched through Game Pass and later expanded to PlayStation 5, giving it access to an enormous potential audience. A player total shows reach, not necessarily long-term satisfaction.

The game received generally positive critic reviews at launch, yet the player response has remained far more divided. Its overall Steam rating is still classified as “Mixed,” with players continuing to debate repetitive locations, loading screens, limited space travel and the uneven quality of its exploration.

This does not mean Starfield has failed. Seventeen million players cannot simply be dismissed, and the large percentage using Creations suggests there is a dedicated audience willing to shape the game around its own preferences. Still, Bethesda should not confuse people trying the game with Starfield achieving the lasting popularity of Skyrim or Fallout.

Starfield has already become a better game

To Bethesda’s credit, it has addressed several major complaints. The Free Lanes update introduced cruise travel between planets within the same system, additional locations, progression changes and numerous quality-of-life improvements. It tackled one of the game’s greatest weaknesses: the feeling that space exploration was mostly a series of menus and loading screens.

The update arrived alongside the Terran Armada expansion and Starfield’s PS5 release, giving Bethesda another opportunity to introduce the game to new players. These changes cannot completely rebuild its foundations, but they show that the studio is listening.

Starfield should also be allowed to remain different. Its more hopeful vision of humanity’s future gives it a tone separate from Fallout’s dark comedy and The Elder Scrolls’ traditional fantasy. Bethesda does not need to turn it into “Fallout or Skyrim in space.”

It needs to make its existing universe more memorable through stronger stories, more handcrafted discoveries and choices that make exploration feel meaningful.

Layoffs make every promise harder to trust

The uncomfortable part is that Bethesda’s roadmap arrived immediately after serious job losses across Xbox. Around 440 positions were reportedly cut across Bethesda and ZeniMax operations, leading the OneBGS union to organise a “Save Our Devs” rally.

The union said it wanted management to understand that workers “mean business” and should “think twice before ever attempting something like this again.”

Former Bethesda developers have also warned that the loss of experienced employees could make future Elder Scrolls and Fallout projects harder to produce because so much institutional knowledge has disappeared. Laid-off staff described that loss as “staggering”.

That same concern applies to Starfield. Games are not supported by roadmaps, engines or corporate statements. They are supported by developers. Promising years of content while removing many of the people expected to create it naturally makes those promises more difficult to believe.

However, its future will not be secured by player totals or by mentioning it beside Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. Starfield will earn its place through meaningful updates, stronger stories and proper support for the developers responsible for building them. Bethesda has confirmed that the journey will continue. Now it must prove that the destination is worth reaching.