Skyrim's co-lead designer says Starfield's main problem is that it never fully cohered as a game: 'It was a releasable game, but it wasn't the best'

The creepiest guy leans in front of an NPC mid-conversation in Starfield.

Starfield is a fascinating RPG. Not necessarily to play, but its development, its legacy—that's what's interesting. Massive in terms of ambition and scale, overflowing with checked open-world RPG boxes, crafted by a talented team who put years and years of work into it—so why is it a cautionary tale instead of an astronomical success?

According to Kurt Kuhlmann, Bethesda's former Elder Scrolls loremaster and the co-lead designer on Skyrim, "the main problem with Starfield is it didn't fully cohere as a game".