Howard

Stranger Things star David Harbour says he "loved" Bethesda's space RPG Starfield and has used "all the exploits" to get infinite money and steal things. 

A former Bethesda veteran says that all decisions at the studio “run through” director Todd Howard.

Stop for a second and picture your favorite video game developer or publisher. It doesn’t matter their “scale” as long as they’re prominent. More than likely, you can name-drop at least one or two people who are the “faces” of that company. For example, Nintendo has Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Doug Bowser, etc. Microsoft has Phil Spencer, Sony has/had Jim Ryan, and on it goes. For Bethesda, they have/had many people who have helped define them over the years for one reason or another. Easily, the one that most people know is Todd Howard. He’s the guy who honestly makes the biggest announcements for the company and helps crank out their best games.

If Todd Howard up and left Bethesda, it would "leave a big hole," says Skyrim's lead designer, insisting that the Starfield director has "an attribute that none of the rest of us did."

Liked Starfield? Hated Starfield? You probably have Todd Howard to thank. A recent chat between MinnMax and Skyrim lead designer Bruce Nesmith shed some light on Bethesda's structure and organisation, and it sure sounds like pretty much every choice the company makes needs Howard's stamp of approval before it can go ahead, even as it's grown bigger over the years. To be fair to Howard, though, it seems like that's in spite of his own wishes.

It's been five years since Todd Howard revealed the startling news that yes, Bethesda is going to make The Elder Scrolls 6, and it will be years yet before it actually arrives. It's a virtually unprecedented gap between a game's «announcement» (such as it was) and tangible evidence that something's being done to make it happen, and Howard himself said not too long ago that he regrets handling the reveal the way he did. The obvious question then is, why announce it at all? According to longtime Bethesda designer Bruce Nesmith, the fans basically bullied him into it.

Todd Howard reportedly told Bethesda executives that a multiplayer game would be "a bad idea" on several occasions - before pressure from fans eventually encouraged him to make Fallout 76.

As Starfield developers begin to depart Bethesda after the release of the studio's massive RPG, some fans are despondently casting their minds forward to the eventual departure of studio lead Todd Howard.

Pete Hines, head of publishing at Bethesda Softworks and the second-most prominent face of the company that makes Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Starfield, is retiring. Hines announced his departure from Bethesda on Monday after 24 years with the company, indicating that he was exiting the gaming industry.

Starfield has been out for about six weeks, and as the dust settles on the honeymoon period, some players are finding that the spacefaring RPG just doesn't have the staying power of Bethesda's previous games, most notably Skyrim. 

One of the main new systems that Bethesda Game Studios had to implement in Starfield was ship combat. Speaking with Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price in the latest episode of The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast, Game Director Todd Howard discussed the influences (FTL and early MechWarrior games) and revealed that the studio had to make the AI 'really stupid' to get ship combat to be fun for everyone.

Just before Starfield came out, the game’s reviews were dropped, and a consistent theme was seen within them. Specifically, these game reviewers kept talking about the amount of hours they put into the game overall, not just with the main storyline but within the whole game. Some of the reviewers had put in dozens of hours, and a few had put in over a hundred to two hundred hours into Bethesda’s new title! What that showed was that no matter what kind of gamer you were, you would have quite the adventure ahead of you. As we know now, that was by design.

Starfield director Todd Howard has said that Starfield was intentionally made to be played for a long time.

Starfield director and Bethesda’s Todd Howard has talked about how so many triple-A games these days incorporate light RPG elements into their design, and what this meant for how the team approached its newest game.

Bethesda Game Studio’s creative director, Todd Howard, wasn’t expecting our Starfield ships to be so damn cool.

Bethesda boss Todd Howard reckons many games are some sort of RPG nowadays, which is partly why Starfield doubles down on the studio's classical role-playing style to stand out in the crowd.

Starfield director Todd Howard says that Bethesda's sci-fi RPG was «intentionally» designed to be played for a long time and that he expects to still be working to update the game for the next five years.

If there's one thing I love in this world, it's trinkets. Tchotchkes. Doodads and thingamajigs. Nothing enables this desire for collecting crud more than a good old-fashioned Bethesda game. Forks, mugs, spoons, bowls—you name it, it's probably in my inventory.

Bethesda boss Todd Howard says Starfield was designed and built for longevity, even more so than RPGs like Skyrim or any of the modern Fallouts, with the studio already considering how the game will evolve for years and years to come. 

If you're tired of Starfield encumbrance, guess what: it's your own fault. Even director Todd Howard will tell you that you should stop picking everything up.

Even before release, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty was confident Starfield would be the least buggy Bethesda game at launch. That proved to be the case, with most reviewers (including our own Francesco) praising it as the most polished Bethesda game released in recent years.

Starfield was extensively playtested by Bethesda devs often working from home, and Todd Howard says this approach worked so well that the studio's going to apply the method to its future games, with the studio's next confirmed, albeit far-off project obviously being The Elder Scrolls 6.

I've walked on nearly 200 different planets in Starfield in environments ranging from frozen tundra to baking infernos to toxic atmospheres. And in all that time I've only suffered one affliction that I felt a need to rush to a doctor to fix: I contracted a lung condition that eventually got so bad it made sprinting consume my oxygen supply in a matter of seconds, and I didn't have the meds to cure it myself.

Bethesda is known for making big, blockbuster RPGs—but Starfield's space combat was a totally new frontier for the team. I've personally found a decent bit of fun in zipping around and knocking pirates out of the sky, even if it's clearly not the game's main focus. I don't envy the devs saddled with the task of balancing dogfights in space.

If you are bummed that planet exploration in Starfield is not as challenging as expected, Bethesda originally planned to make the system much more punitive, according to the game's director.

Todd Howard has shared a surprising insight about Starfield.

Starfield is the biggest Bethesda RPG to date, so of course features, mechanics, and ideas either got cut, reduced, or changed during development. This natural part of the development has been highlighted by Starfield director Todd Howard, who’s explained why a more in-depth planetary affliction system was cut down in favor of other mechanics.

Starfield's planets were originally supposed to be much more punishing for players, that is until Bethesda "nerfed the hell out of it," reveals Todd Howard.

Sometimes, you have to stick up for your dreams. And when that involves coaxing an aging action star into your violent scheme to protect your historic movie theater? Well, that’s just a bonus.

For reasons I won't get into here because it may constitute a little bit of a spoiler, the planet Earth in Starfield is a bit of a wasteland. But what if it was The Wasteland—that is, the post-nuclear hellscape of Bethesda's other big sci-fi-ish game series, Fallout? In an interview with The Washington Post, creative director Todd Howard said developers actually gave thought to the idea.

You may have heard about a little space game called Starfield, the gravitational pull from which risks swallowing all games discourse for months and possibly years to come. Perhaps that's no surprise for a game that's been in development and hyped for as long as any title that I can remember (well, ones that have shipped anyway) but it's easy to forget now the thing's in our hands that it was subject to multiple delays along the way.

Starfield director Todd Howard has spoken about plans for the game that didn’t make the final cut, including the idea for a very neat Fallout reference. 

Starfield game director Todd Howard has confirmed that the game's official mod tools will be released next year. 

In an interview with Famitsu, Starfield lead and Bethesda frontman Todd Howard stated that the game's mod support «will be available next year» (obtained via machine translation), which likely refers to Starfield's equivalent to the Creation Kit modding tools for Skyrim and Fallout 4.

While it’s certainly true that Starfield already has more mods than most games ever receive during their entire lifetime, including the hotly anticipated Script Extender thingamajig, it doesn’t take an eagle’s eye to notice that the vast majority of them are still relatively limited in scope. That’s for good reason, too, as Starfield is currently missing a crucial feature that all Bethesda Game Studios RPGS eventually receive: Creation Kit support. Until Creation Kit 2 – built specifically for Starfield‘s Creation Engine 2 – comes out, modders won’t be able to easily add new weapons, customizations, and other assorted goodies into the game, but the good news is that it’s bound to happen relatively soon!

Opinions on Starfield are all over the place, but two criticisms are pretty widely shared: One, the maps aren't very good, and two, it's a bit disappointing that there aren't any ground vehicles to explore planets with.

After finding out that Starfield completely omits any ground-based vehicles for your avatar to ride on, many players have wondered exactly why Bethesda made this design decision. Fortunately for those players, Bethesda executive producer and Starfield director Todd Howard recently addressed the matter in an interview with Bloomberg. You can find the interview posted further down this article, where you can skip to 3:00 to hear Howard’s response.

Bethesda’s officially released yesterday after about a week of early access availability. Director Todd Howard and Xbox CEO Phil Spencer recently answered a few questions about the new game in a recent interview. .

If you've been exploring planets in the future, as told by Starfield, you might have noticed a distinct lack of land vehicles. It seems cars, trucks and SUVs are a thing of the past in Starfield's vision for the stars, but game director Todd Howard says adding vehicles would «change the gameplay.»

Starfield is officially out, and modders have been working hard creating helpful add-ons, from useful, quality-of-life mods such as revamping the inventory UI to unofficially adding support for DLSS. Others have added more cosmetic things like reskin in-game clothes. And then there are some people out there who keep modding Bethesda's Todd Howard into the game.

Todd Howard has made an interesting revelation about Starfield in a new interview with Esquire.

The problem with some PC games is that technology is constantly improving. As a result, there’s more room for developers to push the limits with their games. So, it can leave some players having to adjust the settings of current video games to match the capabilities of their PC. But if you’re planning on Starfield being more accessible on older hardware, you might be out of luck. Instead, the optimization for Starfield on PC was done, but it’s also meant for modern hardware. 

Starfield development chief Todd Howard had a fun response after an interviewer asked him why Bethesda hadn’t optimised Starfield for PC.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has responded to a question asking why Starfield isn’t optimized for PC, clarifying that it is – it’s just a “next-gen PC game” you may need to upgrade your PC for. 

Bethesda's Todd Howard and Xbox head Phil Spencer have been on the interview circuit for the launch of Starfield, as part of which the pair granted an interview to Bloomberg Technology. While the questions have a more general business focus and veer into things like Game Pass and the Elder Scrolls 6 (no new info), the show starts with Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow rather starkly putting an audience question to Howard: «why did you not optimise this game for PC?»

Bethesda exec Todd Howard has claimed that Fallout 76’s troubled launch ultimately helped the studio’s developers become better judges of when their games are actually ready to be released.

Todd Howard reveals the first real bit of information concerning the upcoming Indiana Jones game that players have heard for months. 

All eyes might currently be on BigOl'Spacegame, but there's plenty more happening behind-the-scenes at Bethesda, one of those things obviously being MachineGames' Indiana Jones project — which, depending how you choose to interpret four words from Bethesda's Todd Howard, might just be gearing up for a proper reveal next year.

One of the biggest arguments that many gamers and developers get involved in is the discussion of console exclusivity. The general premise behind exclusivity is simple: it keeps certain games and franchises on specific systems so that they can have a “unique title” compared to other systems. In contrast, when a game is multiplatform, the game dev team has to attempt to ensure that everything works on every single system it’s on, which can be very stressful. The Starfield release on Xbox and PC is a hot topic issue given Microsoft’s buyout of Bethesda, but Todd Howard is looking toward the positive side of things.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being an Xbox console exclusive.

«When you're making something exclusive then the more you can focus.»

Starfield's game director Todd Howard has said that some players may find the ending «controversial.»

The launch of a new Bethesda Game Studios title is nothing short of an event, and each new title tends to attract the masses in startling numbers. The studio’s long-awaited sci-fi RPG Starfield has launched today after years of anticipation, and it seems Bethesda is expecting it to pull in an even bigger crowd upon release than any of its previous titles have.

Todd Howard is a massive fan of the Indiana Jones franchise. We know that much already, so the fact that he’s getting the opportunity to bring out a video game for the IP must be quite a dream come true. However, we’ve learned little to nothing about this game, and that should change soon. In a recent interview with Esquire, Bethesda’s Game Director did make one small mention of the game and even hinted more towards when we can expect more news to emerge. However, we might be waiting for more details to arrive sometime next year.

Todd Howard is a busy man. He’s wrapped up the bulk of his work on Starfield, but has also already moved on to the next game he’s directing, which is The Elder Scrolls 6. Beyond that, however, he’s also executive producing MachineGames’ Indiana Jones title. And according to Howard, we’ll be hearing more about it sometime next year.

Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being Xbox exclusive, namechecking the brand association Nintendo enjoys with its first party games.

Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft in 2021, which resulted in both Redfall and Starfield's Xbox exclusivity. Many have taken this to mean that The Elder Scrolls 6 and, when it eventually launches, Fallout 5 will also be Xbox exclusive, to much disappointment and even backlash. However, Todd Howard argues that this is good for the company and its games.

The director of Starfield, Todd Howard, has defended the game’s Xbox Series X|S console exclusivity, and has stated that exclusive games are always “a better product”. 

Starfield has an ending that "might be a little controversial," according to its director Todd Howard. 

Starfield game director Todd Howard has spoken on the new RPG's console exclusivity for Xbox systems.

Starfield's barren planets are intentionally boring, reveals Bethesda.

Someone has created a Starfield flashlight mod that projects the face of game director Todd Howard.

Within about half a picosecond of the early release of Starfield, there was already a ruck of mods for Bethesda’s new IP. The numerous ways you can tinker with the space-faring RPG are only going to increase, but for now, how about one that lets director Todd Howard’s face literally shine a light on the situation?

As is self evident, Todd Howard’s hand can be seen everywhere across Starfield. Should we call Todd Howard an auteur? That would take away from the efforts of the hundreds of staff who worked on the game, from programmers and game designers, to the creatives who did voice acting, CG graphics, and other elements of the game, and even the testers and other support staff.

Starfield is still only out for early adopters, but already players are experimenting with the character creator.

We all knew that Starfield would have a packed Nexus Mods page in its first week of release, but the dedication of the playerbase is still awe-inspiring. We're only on day three of its early access period and there are already 334 mods uploaded to Nexus at the time of writing. 124 of which were shared today. So, it's no surprise that some of them already centre around the main man himself, the one and only: Todd Howard.

It’s officially Starfield Day. At least for those who pre-ordered the Premium Edition (or those were lucky enough to get review copies). In the closing days before the game was released, Bethesda’s own Todd Howard took to the community to express his gratitude at the loyalty and enthusiasm fans were showing.

Going from 'here is an RPG set in Boston and Massachusetts' to 'here is an RPG set in space' is a mind boggling task. Todd Howard, captain of the SS Starfield, definitely felt the weight of his mission during development, as revealed in a letter he sent to reviewers before the game's launch.

As Starfield descends upon us and Todd Howard writes letters to everyone from Bethesda and Xbox staff to Starfield reviewers and even the Starfield Reddit, the de facto face of Bethesda has also come up with a cracking idea: "Someone should make a sequel to Skyrim." 

Todd Howard seems to be in a wordy mood as Starfield finally launches after eight years of development and even more concepting. Just yesterday the Bethesda boss sent a victory lap letter to Xbox and Zenimax staff, and Howard also shared a message with reviewers – who've now given the game largely positive scores, with our own Starfield review giving it the highest score we can – acknowledging the fears behind the RPG's production. 

Bethesda boss Todd Howard has returned to Reddit almost two years after his last appearance, celebrating Skyrim's 10th anniversary, in order to thanks fans and subsequently bask in over-enthusiastic praise. In the message posted to the Starfield subreddit 'ToddBethesda' writes:

Fans have waited for Bethesda to bring out their next new IP for years. It was initially unveiled during the last generation of console platforms, where Bethesda teased its first new IP in countless years. Starfield would be delivered during the next generation of platforms, but already, fans were intrigued as to what this new mysterious RPG would bring. Of course, the start of this game project took place even earlier for Todd Howard, the game director behind Starfield. Today, we’re finding out that a memo Todd sent out across the development teams and companies who had a part in bringing Starfield to life.

As Starfield's long-awaited launch approaches, Bethesda's Todd Howard has reportedly sent a memo to staffers that's become public. It's touching for the most part, though Howard doesn't miss the opportunity to let everyone know that he's aware people will be using the infamous New Zealand trick to play the game. 

Today is Starfield early access release day, providing you bought the pricier editions, and senior Bethesda boffins are feeling appropriately festive, and probably also totally exhausted. Bethesda Game Studios director and executive producer Todd Howard has sent an email to staff thanking them for their efforts and ruminating a bit on Starfield's "long and winding" development, which began with Howard chatting to ZeniMax Media's now-passed co-founder Robert Altman in the wake of Skyrim's enormous success.

Three things are always in your future: death, taxes, and yet another version of Skyrim. It seems Bethesda boss Todd Howard is in on the joke, even when he's writing internal messages to the rest of the dev team.

Starfield lead Todd Howard has sent a heartfelt congratulations to the entire team at Xbox and Bethesda on the eve of the game's Early Access launch.

Ahead of the Starfield early access launch this week, Bethesda's Todd Howard has thanked fans for their support and outed himself as a long-time Reddit lurker.

Bethesda has been working on Starfield for more than a decade, so that's a lot of time spent thinking about space. It's, therefore, no surprise that game director Todd Howard has thought about going to space himself - and was actually invited to make this a reality.

Among all this Starfield talk, it’s easy to forget that The Elder Scrolls 6 is even a thing (maybe). It’s been five years since we were treated to a brief tease of the next installment in Bethesda’s flagship series, and the face of the studio seems to regret being too hasty with things.

Bethesda's Todd Howard is currently taking part in the great big Starfield marketing push of 2023. But, it isn't just the studio's upcoming space game that we have all been waiting for. Another of Howard and Bethesda's flagship series is Elder Scrolls, and ever since it was announced that The Elder Scrolls 6 was indeed in the pipeline, many have been eager to hear more about what's next.