8 mo. ago

Starfield’s player count slips below Skyrim on Steam, just two months after Bethesda’s ‘biggest launch ever’

www.rockpapershotgun.com Starfield’s player count slips below Skyrim on Steam, just two months after Bethesda’s ‘biggest launch ever’

Starfield is back on top by a few hundred players, but for how long?

15 comments

Here's the thing though: Skyrim is an anomaly. Dev companies don't care if you're still playing their games after you buy them. It was Bethesda's biggest launch ever, and that's all they care about because just having players play the game doesn't make them money.

It's a sad pattern, but eventually all aging game dev studios take this path. They need a big launch. They don't need continued patronage from their players.

Also, I've only ever heard that starfield is a buggy mess with ironically limited gameplay options for the scope of the universe it's in, and the philosophy the studio took of "yeah not everything is supposed to be interesting, there's plenty of empty space" seems a lot like shooting themselves in the foot.
- I agree that lots of game companies do only have to care about the launch, but I disagree that this applies for Bethesda, because:
  
  many (even casual) folks were still buying copies of Skyrim two months after its launch, as it turned out to be so popular.
  
  experienced players do hold off on buying Bethesda games on launch day, because they are known to be buggy.
  
  they were able to milk Skyrim for many years, offering DLC and releasing it on all kinds of platforms.
  
  they were able to milk Skyrim for many years, offering DLC and releasing it on all kinds of platforms.
  
  Aye, the SE and Anniversary editions made them non-trivial money. Can't understate how that helped float them through the disaster that was Fallout76
  
  I agree with you on those points, as the pertain to Skyrim specifically. Bethesda was a different company 12 years ago.
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I like Starfield, but there being no way to play it aside from being a member of constelation is an RP killer, plus the lack of a survival mode
- That's kinda like saying "but there being no way to play it aside from being a Dragon Born..."
  
  Seriously limits the amount of RP enjoyment I get from RPG's.
  
  To an extant, once you complete Helgan you can go do what you like
- And there being no way to play it aside from buying an Xbox is a straight-up G killer.
  
  Well it is also on Steam
I'm not sure what point the title is making.

"Old games should be dying" ?

Skyrim has had a long time to build that player base, over generations of systems and thousands of mods.

Of course it has more players. McDonalds has more customers than this new cafe down the road from me but I still prefer them to fast food 🤷

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