The anticipation for Bethesda’s next masterpiece, Starfield, continues to rise. This game, which promises a universe of exploration and innovation, is Bethesda’s newest invitation to lose ourselves in a vast digital cosmos – years after inviting us to explore a post-apocalyptic earth or a snow-filled expanse.
With Starfield, Bethesda intends to elevate its long-standing tradition of crafting compelling universes by promising, not just a handful, but over a thousand planets brought to life.
Ahead of its release, however, Pete Hines, Bethesda’s Head of Publishing, is asking Starfield fans to avert their eyes from discussions about the game, if only for an hour, to watch a certain Netflix documentary.
Starfield fans should watch Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine on Netflix if you haven’t. The Hubble, launch of James Webb telescope…people who really work to discover what’s out there.
Img: Webb’s First Deep Field…”the edge of time” – credit NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO pic.twitter.com/wjOzyTTujR— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) August 18, 2023
On Twitter, the ever-vocal Bethesda executive pointed fans to the direction of an hour-long feature, Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine, which offers a beautiful behind-the-scenes look at the ambitious mission to launch the James Webb Space Telescope – the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s largest and most powerful space science telescope.
At first glance, one might wonder about the correlation. After all, why would Bethesda link real-world space exploration documentary with their upcoming game? It’s not like they asked us to watch dragons, or ancient civilizations that lived underground and vanished out of nowhere ahead of the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. But, when you think about it, the question becomes, why not?
The potential thematic overlaps between the Webb mission and Starfield becomes hard to ignore the more you watch the documentary.
Of course, it would be nice if Bethesda introduced an in-game mechanic where players built telescopes to uncover the mysteries of the past – of our modern-day era, if you will. Perhaps Starfield might even let us take a peek into the past of our dear planet, Earth, helping us gain a better understanding of the cataclysmic series of events that eventually led to its presumed demise in the game.
Then again, Starfield could also explore the motivations driving our current push towards space exploration, the still-ongoing Space Age that started all the way back to when the Soviet Union launched Earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, back in 1957. The documentary, in essence, could be an homage to the present that seeds the future in Starfield.
Yet, one can’t ignore the more philosophical implications. The Webb is an emblem of our undying curiosity. It stands as a beacon, reminding us of the challenges of executing a multi-year project, teeming with points of potential failure. But it also celebrates the slow and steady revelation of a costly project culminating in breathtaking images of the universe. It showcases the collaborative spirit required to launch such a project into a realm where no corrections can be made after the fact.
This sentiment parallels the spirit of games like Starfield. As players, we’re presented with vast universes filled with challenges, risks, and potential failures. But we persevere. We collaborate. We innovate. And in that process, we often find beauty in unexpected places – just as the Webb has shown us vivid, previously unseen aspects of our universe.
While these speculations remain just that – speculations – it highlights how real-world achievements inspire fiction. The grandeur and scope of the Webb, an endeavor marked by collaboration and fraught with potential failure, which serve as a testament to human tenacity and innovation. Bethesda, too, with its extensive experience in RPG development and now with Xbox’s backing, is poised to embrace this challenge, drawing inspiration from such real-world endeavors.
From Final Fantasy 16, arguably Square Enix’s best outing in a while, drawing inspiration from stories of old, presumably the English Wars of the Roses, to the pandemic’s influence on Death Stranding 2, and now, Starfield’s promise of a near future where space exploration might become an everyday reality, the stories of such games become even more relevant. They serve as a bridge of what was, what is, and what could be.
Come September, the stars await as we all embark on this journey.
For now though, hopeful spacefarers will have to make do with the current and ongoing saga of Starfield dominating headlines for all sorts of reasons, from early leaks, to disappointed executives, “bland” start screens, and so much more.
