What Engine is Starfield Running On? – Answered

Starfield is coming out later this year, and needless to say, many players are very excited. It’s going to be the first Bethesda RPG since 2018, the first single-player RPG from them since 2015, and the first new IP in decades. It’s a massive undertaking, though something that likely only Bethesda could pull off correctly. With that being said, the engine the team chooses is important to how it feels compared to past games. Here’s what engine Starfield will be running on when it releases.

Which Engine is Bethesda Using for Starfield?

As of late, many different engines like Unreal Engine 5, Unity, and CryEngine have all made a name for themselves as great engines to develop games on. As Bethesda has been doing forever now, Starfield will continue the trend of using the team’s in-house Creation Engine to develop their games. It’s an engine that’s been iterated upon for years now, and given that their staff has the training to use it, they didn’t want to take the time to learn a completely new engine.

While the idea of using a game engine nearly as old as video games itself might cause skepticism, there are other benefits to the team continuing to use the same engine. The biggest of this bunch is that the game should play similarly to the team’s many previous projects. This is keeping in mind the addition of space-flight, but combat and exploration should have a welcoming familiarity to old fans. New fans should also enjoy it, as its style is a tried and true method to satisfying gameplay.

Related: How Long Has Starfield Been in Development? – Answered

The other benefit, as already mentioned partially, is that we’re getting the game far sooner. The time it takes to learn new software like Unreal Engine can take a long time, and that isn’t even including any long-term technical challenges. If the team had decided to stray away from the Creation Engine, it’s possible we’d only just now be hearing about Starfield. The quality difference may not have even been worth it either. We’ll need to wait until release to know for sure, but rest assured that the game is in a good home.