It looks like Bethesda are gearing up for the next Starfield expansion

Bethesda has been largely quiet on the news front as to when the promised Starfield vehicles are to arrive, and when Starfield Shattered Space will be officially released. However, a change made on August 7 over on SteamDB could indicate that Bethesda is finally gearing up to release something big, a new Starfield update maybe? 

Could it be the long-awaited vehicles? Or are the rumors of a September 2024 release for the Shattered Space DLC bang on the money?

On August 7, 2024, a new “Branch” called “Orange” appeared in the Starfield changelist. 

At a glance, it appears that the “Orange” branch doesn’t contain anything particularly new, though the ever mysterious SteamDB Unknown App 2721670 remains present, which has long been suspected of being the Starfield Shattered Space DLC. 

Peer over to the Build ID column, and you’ll see that the Orange branch of the game sits on 15284287, a significantly higher buildID record over the previous patch. According to the SteamDB Starfield patch notes, the last official patch (1.12.30 from June 9, 2024) was labeled 14607349. Since the 1.12.30 update, two smaller patches were released under the BuildIDs 14703494 and 14849439.

As such, it is quite possible that the latest branch – 15284287 – is in fact the Starfield update said to bring vehicles to the game, which we estimate to arrive before the end of August 2024. 

It is, of course, also possible that the Orange branch is for testing the Starfield Shattered Space DLC, though I believe that vehicles will release before Shattered Space does. Officially, Starfield’s first DLC is due a “Fall 2024” release, though the rumor mills of Reddit and Twitter believe that Shattered Space will arrive as soon as September 2024. 

However, it is interesting that many of these rumors allege that a Shattered Space trailer is due to release before the end of August, which could coincide with the next Starfield update. Bethesda have previously released major updates alongside content update trailers, so there is a chance some of these rumors prove true. 

All of this, naturally, is speculation on my part based on the very limited information available, but the recent (alleged) Starfield vehicles leak could further support the idea that the next update is right around the corner.

But for now, time will tell. Hopefully, this latest Orange branch is indeed the Starfield vehicles update that so many have been looking forward to given that traversing an entire planet’s surface on foot isn’t exactly the most engaging gameplay experience.

Don’t miss out on the latest Starfield news by following StarfieldDb on Google News, and be sure to let us know if you think the Orange branch is indeed the vehicles update over in the Starfield forum.