Shadow of the Erdtree saw a 1000% player count surge at its launch. Will Starfield’s Shattered Space be able to do the same?
Elden Ring is hailed by many to be From Software’s crowning achievement. Having already crafted an exceptionally detailed open-world RPG, From Software expanded on their world massively with the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. The massive expansion included 80 new bosses, 70 new weapons, delivered a ton of lore to satisfy theory-crafters, and added more than 20 hours’ worth of content to explore.
Such a considerable expansion appears to have resulted in a considerable surge of players returning to the game or picking it up for the first time. SteamDb reported a near 1000% increase in players following the release of Shadow of the Erdtree, as you can see below.
Starfield has a major DLC release on the horizon, but whether it can replicate Shadow of the Erdtree’s success will all depend on just how much content Bethesda plans to pack into Shattered Space, and if they can work past many of the issues causing umbrage with some gamers.
This isn’t to say Starfield isn’t fun as there is a ton of content to enjoy in Starfield, but I feel it obligatory to mention as many fans are quick to anger if they catch a whiff of criticism. The outrage following microtransactions on Starfield was interesting to follow, especially after I did a count and found only 18 of 938 mods on the Creations store demanded a penny from anyone (stats correct at the time of the original story).
All opinions on Starfield aside, SteamDb has shown that Starfield has had a significant drop in players ever since its launch.
Starfield Shattered Space, the first Starfield DLC, is Bethesda’s chance to win players back, and to set the standard for what future DLC releases could look like, and this will almost certainly set the tone for the success of the game moving forwards.
However, Bethesda will really need to pull the rabbit out of the hat with its upcoming DLC if it wants to mirror the success that Shadow of the Erdtree has enjoyed. But, Bethesda can’t do for Starfield what it has done previously with Fallout and Elder Scrolls DLC.
What does that mean? Let’s compare Elden Ring’s player spike to previous Bethesda games and their DLC releases. Fallout 4 launched in November 2015, releasing several DLC in the following months with Automatron (March 2016), Far Harbor (May 2016), and Nuka-World (August 2016) to name the big ones.
The impact these DLC had on the game’s player count, at least according to SteamDb, was nowhere near as profound as Shadow of the Erdtree’s impact on Elden Ring.
As you can see from the chart, there aren’t very many spikes in the times surrounding Fallout 4 DLC releases, and certainly not to the level Elden Ring has seen.
In fact, Fallout 4’s biggest player count surge came about as a result of the successful Fallout TV series.
To be clear, a lot of the Fallout 4 DLC was really great content, at least in my opinion, and I hope many of the mechanics introduced in those DLC eventually make their way over to Starfield (especially the robot building and customization introduced with Automatron). However, these expansions haven’t had the sort of impact Shadow of the Erdtree had on Elden Ring.
It might not be fair to compare Elden Ring to Starfield in this way as they are two very different takes on the RPG genre, and I wouldn’t expect Starfield to address these differences. But, what Starfield can learn from Elden Ring is that a great DLC can massively extend a game’s lifespan – something Starfield desperately needs, having been outperformed by the Elder Scrolls Skyrim throughout 2024 so far (according to SteamDb numbers).
So, what can Shattered Space do to potentially draw back all of the players it has lost? This is a completely subjective and limited list drawn from my own experience in-game, but I’ve seen many points echoed in many Starfield forums.
- Deliver one seamless overworld to explore
- Rely on less procedural generation and more hand-crafted locations
- Introduce an ‘evil’ romance option
- Overhaul base building mechanics
- Enable advanced ship customization options (stair placement, for one)
- Introduce more variety in quests and activities
- Improve on the variety and challenge of enemies
- Make player-choice matter
On the first point, Elden Ring and previous Bethesda games felt incredibly addictive because you could walk from one end of the map to the other and discover something new along the way no matter how many times you’d already canvased that route. Starfield’s DLC needs to do the same with its primary setting, Va’ruun’kai, because the base game feels more like a sequence of loading screens than a seamless journey (in my opinion).
Rather than generate another planet with procedurally-placed locations, Va’ruun’kai needs to be hand-crafted, contain a range of wacky characters, and deliver a memorable story.
Fortunately, Todd Howard has already indicated in a Starfield interview that Shattered Space will be more like Far Harbor, and won’t feature as much procedural generation as Starfield’s base game has done. This also means, hopefully, that we’ll see more weapons, outpost modules, and a branching questline. It would also be nice to have a Starfield companion outside of the Constellation faction that can be romanced, and who doesn’t criticize you for every ‘evil’ decision you make.
If we’re really lucky, Va’ruun’kai will be as large as the Commonwealth from Fallout 4, be littered with secrets and points of exploration, and require no loading screen or obvious transition in order to walk from one side of it to the other. This is, however, wishful thinking on my part, as the map is likely to be more on the scale of Far Harbor’s map. No evidence has been shown that Shattered Space will aim to be any grander in scale, and in fairness the effort required to build a map on par with the Commonwealth would be considerable.
That said, Shattered Space has been in active development longer than any other Bethesda DLC, so, surely, we can expect it to also deliver more than most DLC releases?
Obviously, it would be unfair to expect Starfield Shattered Space to add as much content as Shadow of the Erdtree seeing as From Software spent more than two years developing their DLC.
If nothing else, we are hoping that Shattered Space will provide many hours of great content that will reverse the negative reviews currently plaguing the game on Steam.
Starfield has a huge amount of potential at its heart. We only hope Bethesda and the dedicated Starfield modding community are able to realize the original potential Starfield promised, and finally end some of the negativity many are quick to languish in online.
If you’re feeling offended by the idea of Starfield being compared to Elden Ring, let us know in the Starfield forum! Otherwise, what are you hoping Starfield Shattered Space will bring to the table?
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