Starfield multiplayer
With plenty of intrepid explorers now galivanting through the Settled Systems, many are wondering if there's a Starfield multiplayer mode.
Following a rocky launch, a vocal contingent of RPG fans are crying out for a Starfield multiplayer mode. At present, Starfield is a purely singleplayer experience, but could that change? While Microsoft and Bethesda have offered no suggestion that Starfield will offer multiplayer or co-op of any kind, some fans and commentators think that a future announcement could be on the cards, or that it might arrive with some Starfield DLC further down the line.
Does Starfield have multiplayer?
Starfield is not a multiplayer game, with no word from the developers that any kind of Starfield multiplayer is in the works. Starfield’s Steam listing clearly marks the game as a singleplayer title, with no mention of any multiplayer modes. Just looking back on all of the Bethesda games we’ve ever played, we’re not expecting Starfield to ever receive an official multiplayer option.
So, if Bethesda doesn’t have any plans at the moment for a Starfield multiplayer mode, why is anyone even talking about it at all?
Well, a driving force behind the speculation is that Skyrim received a fanmade multiplayer mode via a mod. However, that aside, many fans believe that Starfield could receive a similar treatment to Fallout 76, which was built with a similar engine to Starfield. Multiplayer experiences, fans argue, tend to be lucrative for game developers (after all, most of us are more likely to spend money on Starfield weapons and cosmetics if we’re able to show them off online).
However, it’s also worth pointing out that Fallout 76 was not the success Bethesda first envisioned, and it plays very differently from classic RPG games from the studio. With Starfield feeling much more like Fallout 4 or Skyrim, neither of which ever saw official online modes, it’s fair to speculate that Starfield multiplayer would require creating a whole new game, rather than simply patching a multiplayer mode into the game. So, we don’t think we’ll be engaging in outer-space dogfights with members of your Xbox friends list anytime soon.
What are the Starfield co-op options?
Sadly, Starfield co-op is also currently not part of the game. With plenty of gameplay hours poured into Starfield, we can confirm Starfield’s gameplay is strictly singleplayer-only. For now, a future with your friends in Starfield is very much speculation. It is worth keeping an eye on our Starfield mods page, though, to see if any inventive modders come up with a Starfield co-op mod, with the community already coming up with plenty of in-game enhancements.
Starfield multiplayer mod
The Bethesda modding community managed to bring multiplayer to Skyrim, so we can only hope that a Starfield mod for multiplayer appears in the near future.
With Starfield operating off the freshly updated Creation Engine 2, support for multiplayer likely exists within the game’s engine. Designing Fallout 76 as a multiplayer game required a considerable number of tweaks and changes, and it’s likely that Starfield wouldn’t work as a multiplayer game in its current state without significant adjustments. However, that doesn’t mean a Starfield co-op mode is completely impossible. Taking a few of the Starfield powers into account, it’s already possible to summon NPCs to fight for you (including a clone of yourself), so players might be able to take control of these NPCs as semi-permanent companions. Whichever way a clever modder programs it, a Starfield co-op mode limited to a handful of players could revolutionize gameplay.