Bethesda's first big DLC pack for Starfield arrived at the tail end of last month, and in the wake of some mixed reviews, the studio's design director has responded to some of the criticism levelled at the Shattered Space expansion.
In a lengthy exchange over on Twitter, Bethesda's Emil Pagliarulo replied to a fan who's beginning to question some of the studios' choices - both with Starfield and the Shattered Space add-on. The fan's questions seem fairly level-headed, which prompted a more healthy discussion on the topic than you'd usually see on the social media platform.
To sum things up, the Bethesda fan thought a recent developer interview was "very tone deaf" with the reviews that are now out there, and they felt the studio was "making the same mistakes" in Shattered Space that it had with previous releases. We'll throw Emil's responses down below so you view everything that he had to say:
"Twitter/X has never been a place for polite discourse, but I'd like to address what I can. I don’t like leaving fans hanging. In fact, I generally say more than I should. We have a Community team for a reason. But I think a bridge to the devs is important.
First, the interview. As the design director, sometimes I’m asked or instructed to do interviews. I was happy to do that, to represent the designers and the studio. Seeing how hard and passionately they worked on Shattered Space, they deserved nothing less.
Optimism and excitement are pretty standard for interviews. And I'm generally pretty optimistic and excitable (about games) by nature. That said, my optimism is in no way meant to be mud in the eye of any dissatisfied fan. That's not how it works.
I’m also very proud of Shattered Space. We all are. Most of the quests and levels were done by designers who have worked on previous Bethesda games and DLCs, going all the way back to Morrowind. They’re good at what they do, and it shows.
If folks haven’t played Shattered Space, and they like Starfield, I think they’re missing out. If folks have played Shattered Space and still don’t like it, that makes me sad, honestly. Just know that we’ve also been hearing from plenty of people who love it.
Maybe it’s a game of expectations. Fans want a lot, and we do all we can to accommodate them. Here’s what I can tell you – nobody, and I mean nobody, at Bethesda is patting themselves on the back while ignoring our players.
In addition to Shattered Space, we’ve also spent a lot of time this year addressing community concerns and making fixes. We’ll continue to do so, and will be listening to our fans every step of the way. We make these games for all of you.
Starfield is a massive game, and it takes time for us to address things. We move as fast as we can, as safely as we can. Game development is always tricky, but with a game as big as Starfield, every fix could potentially break something else.
To close, let me just say… I love games. I love Bethesda’s games. I’ve been playing them since the Terminator days. All I or anyone here wants to do is make those games… and then make them better. No ego. No arrogance. Just a lot of hard work, and appreciation of our fans."
If you'd like to get a better idea of how the two-way exchange went down, feel free to head on over to Twitter and have a look. As you can see, Emil sums up that all Bethesda wants to do is make the sort of games it's known for - "No ego. No arrogance. Just a lot of hard work, and appreciation of our fans".
Here at Pure Xbox, we've made no secret of the fact that we didn't really take to Starfield: Shattered Space; you can read all about why in our full review. We also asked you folks if you still plan to buy the DLC after these mixed reviews, so if you want to make your voice heard with that, click on the link down below.