Starfield head writer responds to criticism of Shattered Space expansion

The recently released Shattered Space expansion for the space RPG Starfield was disappointing to say the least, but Bethesda Game Studios believes it did a great job.

Image source: Steam (elfless)

Upon release, reviews for Shattered Space on Steam became “mostly negative”. Players complain about the boring plot, poor dialogue quality, lack of new features and high cost for so much content.

Starfield design director and head writer Emil Pagliarulo, who enthusiastically praised Shattered Space in pre-release interviews, commented on this discord with the players on his microblog.

«Perhaps it’s a matter of expectations. The fans want a lot and we do our best to please them. I assure you that no one – literally no one – at Bethesda is patting itself on the back by ignoring our players,” Pagliarulo assured.

Shattered Space takes place on the planet of the mysterious House of Va’ruun (image source: Bethesda Softworks)

Pagliarulo added: “If you liked Starfield but haven’t played Shattered Space, you’re missing out. If you played Shattered Space and still didn’t like it, that makes me sad, to be honest.”

«I’m very proud of Shattered Space. We are all proud. Most of the quests and levels are made by designers who worked on past Bethesda games and DLC up to Morrowind. They are good at what they do, and it shows,” says Pagliarulo.

Starfield was released in September 2023 on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox Series X and S. Since then, more than 14 million people have joined the game, and the RPG itself has received a number of improvements and fixes based on user feedback.