IfStarfield’s marketing so far can be summed up in a word, it’s optimistic. Bethesda is presenting a vision of the future where humanity has built cities among the stars, realizing the ultimate mission of organizations like NASA - at least as they have trickled down into popular culture.
Although being a new IP comes with plenty of risks, this optimism could end up beingStarfield’s greatest challenge when selling itself.Starfield’s optimistic escapism might not be as well-recieved in 2022 as it could have been when the studio began working on the new game.
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NASA-Punk, NASA, and SpaceX
Bethesda has describedStarfield’s aesthetic as “NASA-punk,” but the studio’s choice of wording goes far deeper than the design of the upcoming sci-fi game’s ships and the function-over-form spacesuits. For many people, NASA represents human innovation and optimism at its core; an organization dedicated to scientific endeavour, space travel, and pushing into humanity’s final frontier.
The actual full history of NASA isn’t just sunshine and rainbows, though. The space agency was staffed by some Nazi Party scientists recruited afterWorld War 2as part of Operation Paperclip, many of whom had worked on V-2 missiles during the war.
Others like Kurt Blome and Hubertus Strughold have been linked to human experimentation, and not only that, the Space Race itself was motivated primarily by America’s rivalry with the Soviet Union, providing opportunities for both publicity wins and the development of technology which could be used in theCold Wararms race.
In Bethesda’s defense, the studio isn’t drawing on the actual history of NASA so much as an aesthetic, and the broad sense of optimism that events like the moon landing inspired no matter the motivations behind them or the people involved. The Space Race zeitgeist serves as the key inspiration, and the vast majority of players will likely be more than happy to accept that. While NASA has a complicated history, its romanticized place in pop culture is a deep well for asci-fi gameto draw on.
Things get a more complicated with SpaceX, which also served as a major inspiration for the game’s visual design, going so far as severalBethesda designers visiting SpaceXfacilities. While the darker parts of NASA’s history have largely been forgotten, the SpaceX influence has the potential to leave a more sour taste in players’ mouths. Over the last few months, the personal space race between billionaires Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk has become more center-stage when it comes to any conversation about space exploration.
Escaping Earth
The Space Race of 20th Century was entrenched in broader narratives about freedom, civilizational struggle, and optimism. By contrast, there isn’t nearly as much good will to be drawn from the world’s richest men demonstrating their ability to leave the planet Earth as another summer of floods, fires, and other environmental catastrophes remind people of the effects ofclimate change- largely caused by some of the world’s most powerful corporations.
NASA and SpaceX serving as the inspiration forStarfield,despite being flawed in reality, may not seem like a big deal to many fans. After all, it’s clearStarfieldwon’t actually be portraying either organization directly, withfactions like Constellationcoming to stand in for the space exploration organizations of the 20th and 21st centuries. However, the optimistic tone of Bethesda’s marketing forStarfieldmight not land the way it would have even ten years ago.
Bethesda’s YouTube channel recently released three videos focusing on some of the cities players can expect to explore inStarfield. One of those cities isNew Atlantis, the capital of the UC – United Colonies – which Bethesda’s design director Emil Pagliarulo describes as “a true reflection of the future of our world.”
For especially younger players, the optimistic vision of the future painted byStarfield’s marketingand its comparison to reality could be a reminder of the increasingly bleak prospects of life on a planet with growing wealth disparity and a cascading number of environmental problems.
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Fallout, Starfield, and The Cold War
It might be tempting to claimStarfield’s optimism is apolitical, but when contrasted with theFalloutseries and its politics, the difference could not be more stark. At its best,Falloutis a criticism of the exact vision of an optimistic future thatStarfieldtakes as its premise.
The core ofFallout’s satire is the difference between the cheeryJetsons-style America that existed beforethe Great War of 2077, robot butlers and all, and the nuclear apocalypse that this civilization led to.Starfieldappears to take inspiration from the exact same moment in American history asFallout,the 1950s and 60s, and instead of looking at the propaganda with a critical eye takes that all at face value.
Bethesda has also revealed some of the downsides ofStarfield’s setting. The video covering Neon, a “pleasure city” owned by the Xenofresh Corporation, implies that corporations have been able to set up their own colonies that rival governments like the UC. Akila City, the final settlement focused on in the trio of videos, is also described as plagued by dangerous raptor-like aliens beyond its walls.
Ultimately, however, there’s a real chance that the studio’s optimistic vision of the future just might not be received byBethesda fansthe same way it might have been a decade ago.Starfield’s vision of the future could risk coming across as naive rather than inspiring.
Bethesda isn’t a studio known for its strong writing, rather its giant open worlds are its main strength. It seems unlikely that fans can expect a particularly nuanced narrative based on the main quests ofFallout 4andSkyrim, which many should be okay with if the world itself works. The game might not have particularly critical politics or a subversive story, but those aspects ofBethesda’s open-world gamesare often pushed to the sidelines anyway in favor of exploration and self-motivated roleplay.
Starfieldis scheduled to release on Jun 30, 2025 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
