Starfield’s design director thinks the sci-fi RPG sits “right next to Fallout and Elder Scrolls” as part of Bethesda’s “big three”, but that’s not really for him to decide, is it?

Starfield design director Emil Pagliarulo has put the sci-fi RPG up there with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout, though I’m not sure he gets to make that call.

I think we all know that there’s just something… missing, from Starfield. Even the most ardent of Bethesda fans haven’t quite clicked with it in the ways they have previously with games like Skyrim and Fallout 4, and a year on the game’s first expansion is just kind of more of the same, which isn’t necessarily a great thing. But in a recent interview with GamesRadar, design director Emil Pagliarulo said he believes Starfield “has its own unique personality and now sits right next to Fallout and Elder Scrolls.” That’s obviously a bit of a strong statement given the game’s status a year on, but Pagliarulo does explain himself further.

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“It exists in a unique space,” he said. “It might not be everyone’s cup of tea. What is? We created a new IP, from the ground up, and an experience that is absolutely unique on consoles. And I’m not saying Starfield is better or worse than any other game – just different in what we offer: that weird Bethesda blend of immersion, action, and RPG.” Pagliarulo does know that Starfield is “also different than Bethesda’s other RPGs,” but he believes that it’s “simply developing its own unique fanbase. It’s big and it’s growing.”

Starfield was obviously never going to match up to Skyrim’s decade plus legacy right off the bat, and it does have time to grow, but it’s clear he and presumably the rest of Bethesda want Starfield to be a major tentpole of the studio. “Bethesda used to feel like the studio of Elder Scrolls,” Pagliarulo continued. “Then it was the studio you’d associate with Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Now it’s Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield. Bethesda Game Studio’s Big Three.”

Personally, I’m not really sure you can call Starfield one of Bethesda’s big three when it’s been out a year, only has one expansion, and probably won’t have another sequel for at least five years (and that’s being generous). But hey, what do I know more than the studio that will have taken at least a decade and a half to release a follow-up to one of its most beloved games?