Starfield came out three years ago as the biggest swing Bethesda had taken since Skyrim. One of the people who designed its systems now says there probably won't be a second one.
## What he said Kurt Kuhlmann was Starfield's lead systems designer. He told FRVR that he doesn't think Starfield was "anywhere near successful enough to do a Starfield 2," and that he'd be "very surprised" if a sequel happened. VGC and GamesRadar picked it up September 24.
Here's the part that stings. He thinks a sequel is exactly where the game could have become what Todd Howard pitched. The first one didn't get there.
## Why it came up short, in his words Scope. In a separate FRVR piece, Kuhlmann said even Starfield's team "wasn't big enough to create the amount of content that the grand idea of the game really required." A thousand planets is a promise. Somebody has to fill them.
That tracks with what players felt. The handcrafted cities hit. The procedural planets between them felt like loading screens with weather.
## Read it right This is a former developer's opinion. Bethesda hasn't said anything about a sequel either way. Don't treat it as a cancellation.
The studio's plate is full anyway. The Elder Scrolls 6 is the next big one, and Microsoft just moved Obsidian under Bethesda in last week's Xbox reset.
## The lane takeaway Single-player RPGs live and die on scope, and scope is people. You can't sample your way to a thousand planets. Small teams win when the idea fits the room. Starfield's idea was bigger than the room, and the room knew it.
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## Sources - FRVR: Starfield systems designer says Starfield 2 will likely never happen - FRVR: "We couldn't really make it" - VGC, Sept. 24, 2026 - GamesRadar, Sept. 24, 2026