Starfield NEWS - Todd Howard Interview by Mr Matty Plays - Vehicles, Trackers Alliance, and More! 

Hate campaign.

The free quest isn't the issue, it's looking at the broader picture, everything is becoming microtransactions. Thankfully Todd mentioned this isn't indictive of what's to come but imagine the Shattered Space update come at a $15 price point, and every concurrent mission will cost you an additional $7; it's the concept people are afraid and hating on

There's a fine line between looking at what is actually happening today and intermingling that with imagined future potential events. You are right, people are getting lost in their imaginations, some are writing fictional accounts of other people's intentions, and in the end are merely spinning in circles over things that haven't happened. As of this moment in time, Bethesda has given us an entire Tracker's Alliance feature in a game (which has value) and offered an additional element at a price of $7.

@@kineer like everyone's forgotten the release of ESO when they charged us full price for the game and then had it $10/month to play until the gamers outraged.. THAT same company continuing to test waters, wild to assume they just want money

@@kineer I don't have an issue with how you covered the content of the June patch overall, but you brought up the "only if they can help modders get paid right" and the current system only benefits Bethesda, which is to be expected, they're the business in this. But being blind to what this company has done in the past and continuing to not challenge them is how we the gamers are taken advantage of. The expression "history is doomed to repeat itself" exists for a reason, and that reason is to have people consider what's happened in the past and considered if there's any alterior motives to continue such behavior in the future. Bethesda is not the only ones that uses a micro transaction business model; however, again as you've stated, Todd only mentioned that the do NOT plan on making this a recurring theme BECAUSE the player base challenged it (in terms of this patch). If we the gamers blindly accepted it, they would have continued this method to take any penny they can, especially now being owned by M$, that's just business

I did not notice that (ain't no goat). That's wild though.

Thanks Luis. Appreciate your input. I am watching the upcoming Elden Ring drop too. Looks very good and they have an interesting $1/hour type of approach. They also sold 1.5B of the original game so things are going VERY WELL in Elden Rings-land. :) I do wonder in a Soulslike game if the HLTB play times are from ... ahem ... competent players. They are supposed to be more difficult than a title like Starfield and I can see some abandonment issues in the game that would hide their true cost. idk. In any case thanks for the comment!

@@kineer To be honest, I am kind of there myself. I played Elden Ring, got to the start of the end game, just outside Fire Giant...and stopped. Starfield had just dropped, and I wanted to try it, and I had a bad fall that impacted my left hand, so the controller for the Xbox became an issue. Bought an Elite controller with an additional 4 paddles for input and carried on, but in Starfield, with all of its problems. Now, have pre-purchased the expansion, and find my muscle memory is all Starfield, so, struggling. Can't say video games do not approach real life sometimes 🙄

When I look at my own connections on Steam, most have far less than the games HLTB rated main quest time. Reddit posts seems to indicate some people spend a lot more time finishing it than the 60 hour mark. I might reach out to some ask ask why sometime, but it's not been a priority. I find that game to be a fascinating psychological experiment. Deliberately difficult, widely lauded as an incredible game (that far below half finish)? Lots of room for speculation and comparison. I can't believe some aspiring PhD student hasn't done a nice study on Soulslike players. I'd read it! In the absence of that, I have what I suspect would unpopular theories on the subject but I won't share those outside of a Discord or members-only forum on the channel (and I've not set either of those up yet anyway). :)

Rookie numbers.

I don't know what their policy is so you'd have to read their terms for that.

Tom: Aren't you scared you'll kill yourself if you crash? Burt Munro: No... You live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime. [The World's Fastest Indian] If they give us motorcycles, I'd be be beside myself with joy. I consider this highly unlikely but I keep seeing those posters in the game.

I agree, but I too am speculating. I don't think Todd Howard would have reacted the way he did if it was just a dune buggy you can get in and out of. I suspect he'll at least push for some features that feel a little different than other games. edit: Also thanks for not wading into the politics. It's appreciated ;)

@@kineer oh I agree. It wouldn't surprise me if it's buildable like the robot dlc from fallout 4 with modules to customize it.

Speculating, but I think their multi-player skills are in specific studios (ESO/Maryland, FO76/Austin) and tied to specific titles. Launching a completely new game like Starfield was a pretty big lift in general for any team and to do it as a multiplayer game out of the gate would have been greater risk. Doing so would also probably draw on those teams that already handle multi-player titles so perhaps there's some resource contention there (or just flat out unavailability). It sounds like Starfield will be single player for quite some time though. Once we get through Shattered Space and whatever is next (late 2025), maybe they'll have discussions about a co-op version. We also don't know if Microsoft will step in and expand the Bethesda teams or drive work with partners. I'm not holding my breath though. ;)

Even with $7.5B I don't think they can actually time travel.

Just to circle back, the Vulture DLC includes a weapon, two outfits and the quest time itself with three unique paths to complete it. The latter is playtime which is also something of value. So the item has three types of value elements, one of these includes two individual items (attire). How much is the first part of the Tracker's Alliance feature worth to you in dollars? That would be everything except the Vulture content?

@@kineer Personally, I haven't played it yet. It's on my list to do as last night I just cleared a few more temples. But, as a whole, I would have definitely paid 700 credits for the whole new addition to the game + additional bounty add-ons (quests + items). I think it'd be equivalent to the Automaton DLC in FO4. Bethesda definitely had a chance to package it the same way, but instead chose to add it to the base game and then sell additional pieces of that new content for an overwhelming price. Automaton released at $10 USD, and this added content should have released the same way. It could even have been included in the Premium Edition price. Funny thing about PE... It is NOT a season pass like FO4... it is only the 1st story mission DLC. So now, Bethesda has backed themselves into a corner with the Tracker Alliance itself being free, and them listing this 1st addition, directly tied to that, for 700 credits. On a final note, it sounded like from the interview, that they wanted to set the standard price for additions like this so that the modders would get more money and be able to list their creations for a higher dollar amount. Obviously the more they can charge for these, the more money Bethesda will get. The problem is, the market will determine what price they're willing to pay. Modders will offer free mods because it's more of the recognition that they crave than some % of $ they can make on a sale. Not to mention, they will receive more via donations than they could make in the store. I fully expect the price of creations to drop significantly once more creators release their mods... Right now it's a supply/demand thing. People will pay 700 credits if they're desparate for new content... But others, many others, will instead skip it and then review bomb the game... which is what is happening. We'll see in the coming week Bethesda's response.

Automaton released on 3/22/2016 for $9.99. Inflation adjusted that would be about $12.84 today. According to How Long to Beat, it had 3.5 hours of 'main quest' content for an average cost of $3.67 / hour. This is merely a rough approximation of value, a proxy if you will, but it's a reasonable enough measure because we can apply it across a wide range of content. Assuming the Tracker's Alliance content today (all of it dropped and available on 6/9/2024) takes 1.75 hours for the quests alone, that's about a base value of $6.42. From here we could have a far more subjective discussion about specifics in the DLC like the weapon, armor and a semi-pointless comparison of robot crafting vs. Astras, mission boards, and such, but the point is still that the Tracker's Alliance content (as a whole) is easily worth $7 compared to pricing models already in use. If you really start to stack up everything that was provided, I'll claim it's more. The value is there. I don't have any way to validate your claims about modders income from donations, but I am professionally familiar with the issues of friction in online commercial transactions. The idea that modders on a site like NexuxMods (which has a decidedly "mods are free" philosophy even when allowing donation buttons) are optimizing their income potential seems unlikely. In my view the benefits of (Bethesda) reputation to casual gamers, console gamers, etc. coupled with an easier to use proxy currency, and any other efficiencies are likely to overcome any 'cut' BGS takes in the process. Steam and a hundred other marketplaces do the same thing, meaning none of this a sign of nefarious or malevolent intent or acts. The hurdle, which I believe you touched on, is to get more (likely never all) of the gaming public to acknowledge that mods are an act of creation, they have value, and the creators likely deserve more compensation than only a small number of them seem to currently get. Bethesda can produce official content, even price it above anything modders will add, and give them a lot of room (with their arguably lower overhead) to price and produce value. Time will tell, but if gamers knee-jerk reaction to paying for content is to struggle with even identifying value (perhaps because they are so thoroughly conditioned to expect 'free') then the system will fail. That won't be because Betheda are greedy mustache twirling super villains, it will be because consumers won't move off a position that devalues creator content. We wouldn't look at the 10s of thousands of 'small businesses' running via Etsy, Amazon and elsewhere and tell them to just build a Wordpress site and put up a paypal button. Maybe I just can't see the data, but I'm assuming a shoestring profit-sharing mechanism and paypal-linked donation buttons on NexusMods doesn't have the kind of impact that Microsoft brings to Minecraft creators (see link). It's a big market and a rising tide does indeed raise all boats. Yes, Microsoft will make money on the process, but with over 1200 ETFs with MSFT exposure, I'm not really that worried about that either. Our parents and grandparents 401ks and pensions could probably use a few more pennies per share return. gamerant.com/minecraft-mod-marketplace-profit-millions/

I did a separate video how I assess that value and posted that last night. It's all really 'us outsiders' using various methods to approximate what they do internally, however Todd Howard did say in this interview they were pricing using approaches they'd used before. I'm not inclined to believe he's making materially false statements about pricing strategy in public (even for a relatively tiny product). Some of this falls into the "who goes to this much trouble" category and the answer is that Kineer does. Peace and Firepower, frendo! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KsoMIbPydhg.html

@@kineer hi. Well, i listened carrefully. I don't take Todd's words as god's ones :) i still disagree on the pricing strategy, but more on Bethesda pricing than on any other indies devs. I accept to pay higher prices coming from indies. But when you are Bethesda, and put a little content, you can (and must) make prices low. Peace too.

Todd and god rhyme, but that is where the resemblance ends! :)

I thought the only $10 item (1000 credits) was the Mariner's Set.

@@kineer that's the point. 10 dollars for a skin may be common on California duty, it's over priced for what you get when your playing a game like theod or Skyrim, ect. But that's just the opinion of a normal not wealthy person.

I don't think you get the point, you are talking about optional donations through a third party vs allowing the creators to push free OR paid content and have it seamlessly integrated. Links in console are hard to navigate same goes with PC, a donation inside the description is pointless and many people feel uncomfortable going to random links which could be malicious

@@mellowcloud6434 it may be harder for someone on xbox to donate to the creators now, but who do you really think gets the payout from the creation club? only verified modders will ever see a dollar generated, ofc bethesda is the ones profiting off this program; so their statement "we want our modders to get paid" no... they want FREE PROFIT off someone else work

I don't mean to be dismissive, but I can't get past the first line of your comment where you appear to be telling us Todd Howard doesn't have a rudimentary grasp on the ways mod developers get paid today. That is not a credibility building opener, frendo.

Probably that you don't fly off into the atmosphere as often as a level one Skyrim character fighting a giant would. Likely you only fly off half as often 🤣

@@XKathXgames yeah 😂but for real tho, I find it so incredibly annoying having to walk 500-1000m to reach any destination when I land on a random spot, It just deters me from going to those landmarks

What are your thoughts on the ground vehicles in NMS or Elite? Do either of them do it right? Is there another space RPG that does it well? edit: I didn't see the "70 euros" comment right away. I didn't pull EU inflation data, but did review Bethesda released game prices back to 2006 and applied inflation. 70 euros (1.07 USD exchange) doesn't seem insane. Oblivion would be a $93 game today. There are a lot of legitimate issues in games, but frankly the pricing isn't terrible. I personally don't want to pay $100 for a AAA title and enjoy the psychological barrier companies face, but the results is they will seek revenues through other methods. I also don't want to pay a monthly fee for a single player game I install on my own PC so an occasional and optional DLC is fair. I've waited many times for sales and discounts on content that just wasn't important to me earlier. Video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KsoMIbPydhg.htmlsi=KXLMh7En1ZSKNFHI

@@kineer i only played NMS when it launched for a bit but didn't find anything fun enough to do, and I've never played Elite so I can't speak to any of those. But the addition of normal "space" vehicles like there are in every mainstream movie (armageddon, the martian, for all mankind, etc) would be very welcome. At least for me it'd make it way more fun for exploring planets that I'd otherwise never be in because there's neither a main or secondary mission taking place there. Personally i find it very hypocritical for companies to randomly start charging over 60€/$ for a game when they're also firing their employees because of "economic issues". Hell, look at Elden Ring. I don't like souls-likes but even they didn't go full mental and charge an insane amount for a game that's clearly a masterpiece in every aspect (although it could do a bit more in terms of story immersion imo). If Starfield had some kind of multiplayer or other game mods then I'd understand the need to charge so much for such a "basic" game in today's terms. The story is nice but lacks something. There are no vehicles or intelligent alien life on launch or almost a year after its release. They didn't even add DLSS support on launch because they were either pressured by AMD or straight up didn't care enough to add it. The optimization on PC was a joke on launch and a few months after, which led to a lot of people review bombing it or straight up asking for a refund. I saw your inflation video and if anything, for me it shows Bethesda has overcharged at every turn and let the consumer to beg for some kind of return on their investment. The only reason Skyrim had the success it had, was because of the modding community. I tried playing it once and couldn't bare the horribly designed UI and lackluster character movement, not to mention the amount of bugs it had for years after release.

@@kineer I like the bike in Empyrion Galactic Survival, and the ability there to make your own spacecraft, small, med or large. The NMS exocraft choices are good, and the bike there works well too. I think Starfield could adapt a lot of things from EGS. The one thing that really stands out having played all 3, is that Starfield does not address player being able to operate the spacecraft from ground to air and back again. Inability in Starfield to get in your ship and move it 100 yds in any direction is a bummer. I realize it is a limitation based on how they created the program that generates planet spaces.