Starfield Will Have Full Mod Support, Todd Howard Confirms

Months after releasing a story trailer Bethesda is back with a few more details about what to expect from Starfield, its new sci-fi outer space role-playing game. Chief among them, Starfield will feature full mod support according to director Todd Howard in a new Reddit AMA session with fans.

“Our plan [is to] have full mod support like our previous games,” Howard said. “Our modding community has been with us for 20 years. We love what they do and hope to see more make a career out of it.”

Modders are certainly looking forward to seeing how extensive that support is and what the community can ultimately do with it. Especially considering Starfield is being developed with a significantly updated version of the studio’s Creation engine, which originally powered The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.

Bethesda games, particularly Skyrim and Fallout, remain some of PC gaming’s most active modding communities. Over on Nexus Mods, mods for the original edition of Skyrim boasts an incredible 1.8 billion total downloads, while Skyrim’s Special Edition’s mods boast another 1.1 billion total downloads.

Aside from the expected graphical enhancements, custom characters, and quality-of-life improvements, Skyrim mods have become an infamous source of inventive, occasionally frightening customization.

Howard also shared additional details about Starfield:

• When asked if there will be any robot companions in Starfield, Howard responded succinctly: “Yes, kind of.” My only hope is that they’re at least as cool as Nick Valentine.
• In Starfield’s character creation, players can select their pronouns (Howard lists he, she, and they), and Bethesda has recorded “all the relevant dialogue to support that choice.”

Make sure to check out IGN’s official Starfield hub for more news and trailers of Bethesda’s next big adventure. We most recently learned that Elder Scrolls 6 was pushed back due to the focus shifting to Starfield. You can hear more from Bethesda’s Todd Howard in the new IGN Unfiltered.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/fus-bro-dah for IGN.