Summary

• The Starfield: Shattered Space expansion releases on September 30 with a more mysterious slant.
• The new expansion builds upon the lore of the base game, focusing on House Va'ruun.
• Bethesda's Lead Creative Producer Timothy Lamb is "personally excited" at its prospects.

The official date for the Starfield: Shattered Space expansion was announced this week at Gamescom, officially slated to release September 30. The release will take a more mysterious, horror-esque slant than the base game, taking players to an abandoned space station to investigate a distress signal. With a brand-new location and storyline, the expansion will build upon the existing lore of the game in fresh ways.

The game’s expansion is set to address a big mystery of Starfield, shifting focus to the House Va'ruun. Many of the finer details are still unknown, but this may mean that companion Andreja gets more of a chance to shine; the character was a former member of House Va’ruun, and would be a perfect option for helping to further the overall lore. Unfortunately, the DLC isn’t free - it will be available to players who bought the or Constellation editions of the game or can be purchased separately.

Screen Rant interviewed Timothy Lamb, Lead Creative Producer at Bethesda Game Studios, at Gamescom to discuss the scope and size of the new DLC, the inspirations behind it, and the biggest changes it will bring for fans.

Building Upon The Starfield Universe With Shattered Space

Expanding On House Va'Ruun & Striving To Make Fans Happy

Screen Rant: We saw at Opening Night Live that there is an additional free update for Starfield with the new rover, but I'm curious if with this new DLC there will also be improvements that are making their way to the base game that aren't directly linked to the paywall?

Timothy Lamb: Yes, absolutely. There's sort of two pieces to that, right? If you look at the updates that we've done nearly every six weeks since September or so, there's still improvements that we have there that are outside the scope of the new content.

I'm actually personally excited at some of the community notes that I've seen go through. I don't want to specify them here, things could always change, but I saw some things go through that I was like, "I can't wait until we can say that that's a thing that we're doing." So yes, there will be; outside of that, there are still quality of life improvements that are coming at that same time.

I'm sure you can't reveal everything about this question, but we know that the companion Andreja used to be part of House Va'Ruun, and I'm wondering if she's going to factor in any way as a sort of larger role in this DLC?

Timothy Lamb: This is a good question. It's a tricky one to answer because I don't know what players have done. I don't want to spoil her story for players who haven't experienced it. It was certainly a consideration in the development.

Obviously, when you were creating the lore of the original Starfield universe, these aspects of the houses and that sort of thing existed. But I'm curious, from a creative perspective, were the new pieces of story and lore you are introducing in this DLC, were they already concepts that you had to begin with? Or was it sort of saying, "We want to expand on the lore of this house, let's sort of dive into it now" ?

Timothy Lamb: There's ebbs and flows in development where certain things gain and lose focus over the course. We had Andreja, interesting character, and it was: how much can we delve into that? There's pieces of it, but as development goes on, it expands. Once we finished the base version of the game, it seemed clear to the team that was really the area we wanted to focus on and dig deep. There's a lot there.

All players play at a different pace in different ways. Our games a wide variety of play styles, but it feels like a traditional Bethesda expansion, in scope and scale. - Timothy Lamb

Do you have any ballpark of how much content is coming in this DLC?

Timothy Lamb: It's difficult to explain, because I want to avoid direct comparisons to other things that we've done. Because I feel like if I name-drop, "Oh, it's just like that," there's an expectation that I don't want to make, or like, "That one's really close to my heart. It's going to be exactly that. I'm going to feel exactly the same way I did when I played that." I don't want to do that, but I do want to say all players play at a different pace in different ways. Our games a wide variety of play styles, but it feels like a traditional Bethesda expansion, in scope and scale.

In of when you were developing the DLC, I'm curious the biggest challenges that came along with that, whether it was determining just where you wanted to go, or anything really in of development?

Timothy Lamb: Well, when I think about the scope of the vast galaxy, there's a lot there. The biggest challenge was probably taking and making the customized bespoke location as large as it is. When you think of a landed area in vanilla Starfield, base game Starfield, focusing everything into that to customize that location and that experience. That was probably the most challenging part.

I’m sure you can't say anything too specific because of spoilers, but what are you most excited to see players react to when this DLC drops?

Timothy Lamb: That's an interesting question. I mean, anytime we do anything, we never know what's going to - I don't think anyone saw arrow to the knee being the thing in Skyrim [Laughs]. It's like, "What's it going to be?" We always think about what can it be.

I'll be curious to see if having that focused location and, "Hey, I'm here and I'm experiencing this story in this focused place and I don't have to leave or travel around through the galaxy," if that provides an experience that players were hungry for.