• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Starfield has lost 97% of its Steam players in less than six months.

Wooxsvan

Member
i had a complete blast with this game, played about 2 weeks, did the ng + thing a few times. we'll see how the expansion is but i havent touched in since then.
 

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
I'm about 70 hours in, Lost Somewhere on the Planet with Akila City trying to scan all the scannables. I'm missing several.
 

mejin

Member


How it so quickly turned into "most single player games". Hindsight is 20/20.

Screenshot-20240212-114303-Chrome.jpg

Screenshot-20240212-114337-Chrome.jpg


Toasty_mk3.JPG
 

IFireflyl

Gold Member
Starfield isn't a bad game at all. It has bad parts, sure. But the overall game is... I guess I would describe it as "decent". Its main issue is that it was hyped up (by Microsoft, Bethesda, and fans) to be way more impressive than it was.

It did not capture my attention like Skyrim did. This obviously isn't just my opinion since Skyrim has more active players than Starfield. But, it is possible this could turn around when the modding toolkit gets released. Skyrim became WAY better with mods. Starfield does have mods, but the modding toolkit should improve the selection of available mods, potentially breathing new life into the game.
 
Last edited:

Peter303

Member
The only time you can't dismiss teammates is if you're in the middle of their quest, but it sounds like you already know that. His actually isn't bad. Just go in the quest log and select it, and it tells you where to go. As for the armillary, just store it on your ship and you don't have to do anything differently except a couple ship battles you can skip if you don't want the free xp.
A couple of ship battles doesn't sound that bad. I'll try get back into it as I've nothing else to play currently. Thanks
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member
Came here to post this. Who the fuck is still playing a sp game 6 months on?
We just gonna pretend that Skyrim doesn't exist? You dont need me to tell you how old that game is right? And still has more active players than this GOTG.

Just putting this out there, not saying it should still have that kinda support, but that you shouldn't say what you are saying as if the alternative isn't possible.... even from the same developer.
 
Last edited:

Ribi

Member
peak players does not equal total players as players come and go through the day. That said I told yall Todd was a liar so I'm taking my victory lap still.
 
We just gonna pretend that Skyrim doesn't exist? You dont need me to tell you how old that game is right? And still has more active players than this GOTG.

Just putting this out there, not saying it should still have that kinda support, but that you shouldn't say what you are saying as if the alternative isn't possible.... even from the same developer.

To me that's like comparing every game to GTA V's numbers. Fallout and their other games don't have the staying power of skyrim so you'd be naive at best and intentionally disingenuous at worst to try and compare this game to Skyrim.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
A couple of ship battles doesn't sound that bad. I'll try get back into it as I've nothing else to play currently. Thanks
It's basically just a random chance for a ship battle. It will stick around and happen on occasion. If you do get burned out though, just jump again and ditch them. I never tried setting it up on an outpost so I don't know how that goes.
 

Papa_Wisdom

Member
I’m still really excited to play this.

That been said it still won’t be for a while as I have cyberpunk to go through first and giving Bethesda/modders time to patch it up a bit
 
What needs to be fixed in Starfield that can realistically expected to be fixed?

Cyberpunk fixed many bugs, but much of the core gameplay was still the same.

Starfield's biggest problem IMO was that the took out the exploration aspect of it and replaced it with landing on a planet with randomly generated terrain, randomly generated structures. Fallout and Skyrim's best strength was wandering off the beaten path and into new area leading to new Questlines. That was Bethesda's magic that enabled everyone to put up with the kank/bugs. Starfield had almost none of that. It would have been a FAR better game with more fleshed out areas and far less of them. Can't fix that with an update. The game is what it is.
That’s what I’m saying. It’s not really fixable. Cyberpunk was fixable.
 

ReyBrujo

Member
Science fiction is boring when compared to fantasy so Elder Scrolls VI should do far better. In fact they should do an Ultima, when you beat Elder Scrolls VI you find a rocket and get Starfield for free.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I beat it and put it down just a few days after release, so, yeah, I'm not surprised that many people have dropped off. Plenty of new games have released since then.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'm done with almost every single player experience by 6 months.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
To me that's like comparing every game to GTA V's numbers. Fallout and their other games don't have the staying power of skyrim so you'd be naive at best and intentionally disingenuous at worst to try and compare this game to Skyrim.
Why?
Isn't this game supposed to be better than Skyrim?
At least that is how it was announced, upgraded engine, more content, 1 thousand planets, better in every way.
 
Why?
Isn't this game supposed to be better than Skyrim?
At least that is how it was announced, upgraded engine, more content, 1 thousand planets, better in every way.

Skyrim is a lightning in a bottle zeitgest thing. It ticked all the boxes and came out the same time as game of thrones. It's Sci-fi vs Fantasy. Essentially completely different genre. Why isn't fallout more popular? Etc. Skyrim always got a lot of love and generosity because people loved the world. I'm not speaking from personal opinion here. I'm not a fan of fantasy.

is it cool to call people green rats around here?, I thought we just joked around with the term.

It's bizarre and pathetic. What year are some of these people living in to say shit like that? Just lame.
 
Last edited:

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
To me that's like comparing every game to GTA V's numbers. Fallout and their other games don't have the staying power of skyrim so you'd be naive at best and intentionally disingenuous at worst to try and compare this game to Skyrim.
By bethesdas standards this game doesn't have the staying power is what i think most are trying to say. There's still an active modding community for the Fallout games. Oblivion. Skyrim. Morrowind etc. Keeping them relevant for years after. Starfield doesn't have that.
 

BlackTron

Member
I did my SSD and the servers dirty by downloading the whole game, then deciding I didn't want to get invested in something I had a strong feeling wouldn't be that great. Just let it sit until my GP ran out and deleted it.
 

Ceadeus

Member
Some people are pathetic, they see game releases like the second coming of Jesus Christ like game company owe them infinite happiness and perfect joy .

It's not that the game isn't good or that you gave it too much hype before release. The problem is your lifestyle sucks. You're never satisfied with what you got and will never be happy.
 

Tomeru

Member
This isn’t unique to Starfield.

People rush in to play new AAA games, and if they don’t maintain interest - they stop coming.
100% this. All shit games are like this.

In five months Resident Evil 4 lost 99% of its players, thus proving RE4 is shit (apparently).

ieXKP4O.jpg


I don't even like Starfield and have no desire to try it, but these arguments are silly.

We can also see RE4 picked up after its DLC released and/or got discounts, as you'd expect.

Comparing re4 to a bathesda game is fine when talking gameplay wise, not when when comparing status and what each company's flagship ip is supposed to mean. I don't think you would ever compare skyrim to re, and that alone tells you starfield's position.
 
Last edited:

HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
Tell that to Square and FF7 Rebirth.
Oh boy..... this is not a rabbit hole you want to go down. Some of Starfield's visual shortcomings were meme-worthy after launch. I'm not saying this as a threat, but if folks start pulling out those little pieces, I warned you! :p

ResilientBanana ResilientBanana

Just a tiny difference — Hogwarts was not called the Game of the Generation and continues to break sales records. Come to think of it, for the sake of clarity, what were Skyrim numbers like 5 months after release? Genuinely curious.
 
Last edited:

Boss Mog

Member
This is like the Cyberpunk debacle, except CDProjekt fixed cyberpunk and it became a redemption arc. Doubt Bethesda can fix Starfield enough to make it compelling. Cyberpunk had the bones there.
No, CyberPunk 2077 was a good game from the start. It had a lot of bugs and the last gen versions should never have come out because those systems weren't capable enough to run the game properly, but at launch, on PC, CyberPunk was a good game at its core. CDPR made huge improvements to it to make it a phenomenal game though.

Starfield was never a good game to begin with.
 
No, CyberPunk 2077 was a good game from the start. It had a lot of bugs and the last gen versions should never have come out because those systems weren't capable enough to run the game properly, but at launch, on PC, CyberPunk was a good game at its core. CDPR made huge improvements to it to make it a phenomenal game though.

Starfield was never a good game to begin with.
Hah again, that’s exactly what I’m saying here.
 

Jigsaah

Member
I would say this is normal for a single player game but there were actually people saying this is the next skyrim that will be played for decades to come. Well, surprise mfers it's not. Currently Skyrim has 3 times more players than it.
It's the mods. Starfield has mods too...but no where near like Skyrim. I first played Skyrim for about the same amount of time that I played Starfield initially. After finishing the game I uninstalled...waited years for mods to get up to speed and then started playing it again. I think I'll do the same with Starfield if the mods offerings are similar. Right now, I've heard the modders are mad as well. Somehow, Starfield is not as mod friendly I guess?
 
Last edited:

YOU PC BRO?!

Gold Member
The game is tedious to play...

> Constant loading
> Annoying and unintuitive layered menu system
> Slow on foot traversal, almost always over-encumbered
> Terrible enemy AI
> Annoying companions constantly in your ear

StarField is the first Bathesda game I simply abandoned and never went back to. The game just doesn't respect your time. Feels like a chore rather than an enjoyable experience.
 

TheKratos

Member
I give the game a solid 7. This space setting doesn't do it for me especially if you have million loading screens and the space combat was horrible.
 

The Stig

Banned
This is like the Cyberpunk debacle, except CDProjekt fixed cyberpunk and it became a redemption arc. Doubt Bethesda can fix Starfield enough to make it compelling. Cyberpunk had the bones there.
its funny you should mention this.

the hype behind starfield was my main motivator for building my new PC. it came out and i saw the reviews. a month later I still built my PC but instead of buying starfield I bought cyberpunk + DLC.

omg the game is fucking AWESOME. looks amazing
 

Jigsaah

Member
Or to use a more contemporary comparator:

KS90Bub.png


~20 percent of the peak still playing compared to Starfield's meager 3 percent.
This is a replayability issue. There's things that attempt to raise that bar but other problems with the game make them pointless. For example, ship building in the game can be very fun, but what does that matter when space combat and exploration is so terrible? Base building is fantastic, but why engage in it when it's easy to obtain minerals and items in other ways?

Baldur's Gate 3 has replayability built in because of the choices you have to make where during the first playthrough its very clear that things could have gone in a different direction. Also there are classes you can play that aren't part of the original cast's repertoire. Romances you cannot do unless you play a certain way...quests you may have missed or even failed.

Starfield's perk system is like a funnel that eventually leads to one outcome. Being crazily OP and ending up avoiding so many USELESS perks. Could Starfield have these kinda elements of replayability? Looking at Bethesda's previous games...I'm not so sure honestly. It's almost unfair to compare the two games because fundamentally they are very different. I think Starfield made some bad decisions in terms of their systems and resources, true...but even if they were really good, the game simply doesn't lend itself the same kind of replayability that a game like BG3 does.
 

pasterpl

Member
It is pretty normal for a SP games player numbers to plummet. 97% drop isn't much of a story, not one that can really say anything without a lot of data for how other SP games dropped. What isn't normal is that other much older Bethesda RPG's have far more players.

Skyrim - 18.5k
Fallout 4 - 12.4k
Starfield - 4.7k

New Vegas is at 2.7k, it's not impossible Starfield drops below that eventually. The 97% drop isn't really a good news story, but the much lower players than Bethesda's other RPGS while being so much newer is. By Bethesda's standards Starfield was a clear miss.

1. These games were out for ages with multiple sales and years of mod support = people are more invested
2. Fallout 4 lost approx 90% players after 6 months
3. Skyrim lost approx 84% players after 6 months

for comparison God of war on steam lost 96% of players in 6 months, horizon zero down and spiderman remastered 93% down after 6 months. All of these Sony games were praised on this forum, for many god of war is game of the last generation etc.
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member
To me that's like comparing every game to GTA V's numbers. Fallout and their other games don't have the staying power of skyrim so you'd be naive at best and intentionally disingenuous at worst to try and compare this game to Skyrim.
Well, excuse me... I m not the one that was brandishing the game as the game of the generation. And the first true next-gen game... or even better.... Skyrim in space.

But yh, I am with you, I guess we can now finally agree that its just like any other game out there... and not even a good one at that.
 
Top Bottom