Starfieldis set to launch on July 06, 2025, with lofty promises in terms of length and scale as Bethesda has been hyping it up as its “most ambitious” game ever. It will feature incredibly flexible character customization, the ability to build outposts and starships, and promises 1,000 unique planets for players to explore. However, once Todd Howard’s Bethesda game finally releases, it may be too little too late compared to the competition.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivorreleased at the end of April, and it may already blowStarfieldout of the water in one key aspect. WhileStarfieldstill has plenty of time to show what it’s really made of,Star WarsJedi: Survivoralready makes a case that Bethesda’s upcoming title may lag behind other games in terms of planetary exploration.Starfield’s sheer number of planets fans can explore might not keep up with games that came before it.
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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Small Planet Count
It may be confusing as to howStar Wars Jedi: Survivor’s planets could rivalStarfield’s, butSurvivormakes it a point that player freedom and exploration shouldn’t be a numbers game.Star Wars Jedi: Survivorgives fans six planets to explore, with four of them in particular being incredibly expansive with their own sizable regions. Even the smallest planets serve an important purpose in terms of story and still hide a decent amount of secrets despite the smaller scale.
Players can even explore theiconicStar Warssettingof Coruscant right at the beginning of the game, which sucks players into the world ofStar Warsright away—no matter if they’ve played the previous titles in theStar WarsJediseries, or if they’re just a fan ofStar Warsfilms. The amount of detail found in these locations tells players that Respawn wanted to make each planet an adventure in itself rather than choosing to feature tons of different worlds, and that benefits the game far more than fans might realize.
Starfield’s Many Planets Come with a Big Catch
UnlikeStar Wars Jedi: Survivor,Starfieldis said to feature a thousand planets for players to find and explore, but there are some caveats to this impressive number. While not much is known aboutStarfield’s planets just yet, it learns fromJedi: Survivorwhile taking notes fromNo Man’s Sky. It seems thatStarfieldwill have fully developed and expanded planets as hubs for fans to visit, such as the case ofStarfield’s New Atlantis, and a huge number of other planets will be procedurally generated.
‘Procedurally generated’ doesn’t mean that players will necessarily encounter different planets from one another other likeNo Man’s Sky’s planets. Bethesda has made it clear that while the planets inStarfieldwere generated at first, the studio saved the planets it liked and fixed them up, expanding them to better suit its vision. As much as this makes it so every planet may have something worth seeing, it may be too much forStarfieldand its players.
While Bethesda may have done all it can to make 1,000Starfieldplanetsinteresting, it’s almost impossible to guarantee that they’ll all be worth exploring, and they’ll likely not at all be the same size asStar Wars Jedi:Survivor’s own worlds. This is whyStar Wars Jedi: Survivormay take the cake with its six planets as each of them has been carefully crafted to reward players for looking through every nook and cranny.
The difference between both planetary exploration games comes down to quantity versus quality, withStarfieldaiming for what feels like quantity over the quality thatStar Wars Jedi: Survivoruses to its benefit.In this way, Respawn may benefit from Bethesda dropping the ball. After all, if one fan tires ofStarfield’s planetary offerings, thenStar Wars Jedi: Survivormay be a game worth trying instead.
Starfieldlaunches on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
