Starfield’s Shattered Space DLC Finally Has A Release Window, But Is It Coming Too Late?

Summary Shattered Space DLC, coming in Fall 2024, promises new story content, locations, and gear for Starfield players.

Fans speculate that the expansion will focus on House Va'ruun, offering a new star system to explore.

Bethesda faces questions about the timing of the DLC release, with concerns about keeping players engaged while waiting.

Starfield's first expansion, Shattered Space finally has a release window after months of speculation. The DLC was announced before Starfield's launch as an additional incentive for players to purchase the game's Deluxe or Constellation Editions to receive immediate access to the content upon its release, but outside of a vague 2024 release window, Bethesda remained tight-lipped on when in the year it would finally arrive.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Starfield.]

Those who didn't purchase one of Starfield's special editions can either upgrade to the Digital Deluxe version or purchase Shattered Space separately upon its release.

As per the original announcement, Shattered Space will bring new story content, locations, gear, and more to the game. What this new story will entail has yet to be revealed, but many believe it will focus on House Va'ruun, the third interstellar government to have formed in the Settled Systems who were mentioned often throughout Starfield's main campaign, but their base of operations was not seen. The Great Serpent-worshipping house has a headquarters on the planet Va’ruun’kai, but even the star system for this is unknown, with House Va'ruun keeping its coordinates from its worshippers to avoid anyone discovering it. This would seem like an obvious choice for Shattered Space, opening up a whole new star system to explore while expanding upon pre-established lore.

Related Starfield’s Shattered Space DLC Can Fix The Game’s Most Annoying Issue Starfield's upcoming Shattered Space DLC has the opportunity to avoid the game's most annoying issue by being a smaller, more condensed story.

Shattered Space Will Launch In Fall 2024

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In an interview with Greg Miller of Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda's Todd Howard stated that Shattered Space will be released in the Fall of 2024. This will be almost an entire year since Starfield's original launch on September 6, 2023 - or September 1 for those who pre-ordered the Deluxe or Constellation Edition - which is likely quite a bit later than players were expecting.

Starfield's ending essentially saw players entering a new game plus-esque loop in which their character is reborn as a Starborn upon finding the Unity and crossing over into another dimension. This allows for seemingly endless gameplay, as players can start over and over and play the game differently each time.

While elements of each new universe are different, and players can even opt to skip the main campaign entirely on some playthroughs, many were hopeful that Bethesda would introduce new content to the game sooner rather than later, especially with complaints that while Starfield does let players explore over 1000 planets across 100 Star Systems, this scale didn't always work in the game's favor as while the story locations were well crafted by Bethesda, most of the procedurally generated planets were largely empty. Therefore, while there is seemingly endless replayability on offer, only the most hardcore Starfield fans seem to be sticking around for this, with 97% of the game's player count on Steam dropping off in just five months after its release (via. Steam Charts).

Related You Don't Need To Wait For Starfield Shattered Space For More Side Missions Starfield players can accept more side missions across the Settled Systems than before while they wait for the upcoming Shattered Space DLC.

Is Bethesda Releasing Shattered Space Too Late?

Other Titles Have Seen A Resurgence Due To DLC Releases Years Later

Custom Image by Katarina Cimbaljevic

This poses the question of whether a year's wait with no major new content is too long, and if Bethesda's leaving it too late to release Shattered Space. While modern AAA game development takes time, in the past when a DLC expansion has been announced as part of a pre-order deal, it usually releases within months of the game's launch.

It's possible that while players may drop off after completing Starfield's main campaign, the new expansion could bring them back regardless of the wait, much as Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty did last year when it launched 3 years after the base game. Unlike Starfield, however, Cyberpunk 2077 had a complete overhaul to some of its core gameplay mechanics at that time and was in a far better state than it was upon its initial launch, giving those who hadn't bought the expansion a reason to pick up the title as well, so the number of players who do return to Bethesda's space-RPG in Fall 2024 might not be as large.

Related 10 Starfield Updates That Need To Happen Before The Shattered Space DLC Starfield’s upcoming Shattered Space DLC is exciting, but many things need to be done to the base game first to make it a better experience for all.

Will Starfield's Creation Kit Release Before Shattered Space?

Past Creation Kits Let Players Access Bethesda-Supported Mods On Console And PC

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There has been a resurgence in other Bethesda titles recently, namely the Fallout series, due to the success of Amazon's live-action adaptation bringing in new audiences and inspiring past players to return to titles such as Fallout 4, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 76, resulting in some of the best player counts these titles have seen in years. One of the main reasons some of these titles have had an active player base during this time is that players can pick it up and enjoy new content through fan-made mods, with the Bethesda-supported Creation Club providing plenty of new content from the community and making it easily accessible for players on both console and PC.

In fact, when Bethesda announced the next-gen patch for Fallout 4 to capitalize on the show's popularity, it included several free Creation Club items with new decorations, weapons, quests, and apparel to give a large amount of its returning players a new experience on top of the typical promised enhancements one would expect from a next-gen re-release. Bethesda has announced the Creation Kit for Starfield, which will do the same thing, but unlike Shattered Space, there isn't a release window for this. If Bethesda is planning to launch its Creation Kit in the time before Shattered Space, this could help keep more players returning in the meantime, or provide even more to explore when they do return for Shattered Space, ensuring they stick around for longer than the DLC's campaign.

On PC, modders have already been adding new content to the game, from the ability to play as specific Star Wars characters and fly iconic starships from that series - outside of the ships players are building using Starfield's in-game ship-builder - or even get any creature across the Settled Systems to become a pet and follow players into battle, even terrormorphs. In the case of the latter, the modder even stated that while at the moment they are using console commands, there will be room to expand upon this mechanic when the Creation Kit is released. Hopefully, Bethesda will release the Creation Kit soon to give players a reason to keep returning to Starfield on both consoles and PC while they wait for Shattered Space.

Source: Kinda Funny Games/YouTube, Steam Charts