Starfield is Bethesda’s upcoming space-set RPG. Little has been revealed about the title, and many fans are hoping the studio will reveal more about it at E3 2021 next month. If Starfield has some of the elements fans were hoping to see in Pioneer before the project ran into trouble, it could fulfill the the desires of sci-fi fans looking for a game with spaceflight, exploration, and a variety of options for interacting with the galaxy and its inhabitants.

RELATED: Starfield Release Date Reportedly Coming at E3 2021

Pioneer’s Plight

Pioneer was first teased in Watch Dogs 2. Players could hack a company which is a parody of Watch Dogs’ developer, Ubisoft. In doing so, they received access to a trailer with “Ubisoft Confidential” overlaid on it. The video showed several brightly colored spaceship and space station designs floating in orbit as a guitar riffed in the background. Fans were quick to note that this trailer would have been expensive to make for a single Watch Dog scene, quickly realizing that it was a hint at an unannounced Ubisoft project.

The design of Pioneer appeared to be relatively realist. Although the colors were bright and the music had a western twang, most of the technology seen seemed to err more on the side of hard sci-fi. A pilot, presumably the player character, could be seen wearing a space-suit, perhaps also indicating realism. A few clearer details are known about Ubisoft’s aims for Pioneer. It would have been a space exploration game, and unlike most games it would have avoided giving players objectives that required violence to complete.

By 2019, however, it seemed that Pioneer had failed to launch, even though the game had never been announced. On January 14, former Ubisoft creative director Alex Hutcheson simply tweeted “RIP Pioneer.” Anyone hoping to see Ubisoft’s take on a hard sci-fi, pacifist space exploration game seem unlikely to ever get the chance. Some leaks have suggested that Ubisoft may be working on a very different version of the project using the same core ideas, but with no news for years it’s seems unlikely Pioneer will ever see the light of day.

RELATED: How Naughty Dog’s Rumored Sci-Fi Game Would Probably Differ From Bethesda’s Starfield

Starfield’s Opportunity

If Bethesda plays its cards right, its upcoming space-set RPG Starfield could scratch the itch of Ubisoft fans who were excited about Pioneer. There are already some clear similarities between the two projects, even though most of what has been revealed about Starfield has come from leaks rather than directly from Bethesda.

It’s clear Starfield will involve space ships, with some fans speculating that the game’s leaked space ship designs could indicate ship-building and customization. Like Pioneer, Starfield’s design seems to be aiming for realism. In Starfield’s case, the technology in the game was based on Bethesda developer visits to SpaceX. If the game’s aesthetics are any indication of its mechanics, Starfield could have innovatively realistic survival elements.

This is also indicated by a compass which can be seen in the leaked Starfield images. This compass appears to show Oxygen levels, CO2, and gravity. The player character can also be seen wearing a jet pack. This implies that different planets will force the player to contend with different atmospheres, and that Bethesda could be exploring more realistic physics, giving players access to multiple ways to make their way through environments with different gravity levels.

Several of Starfield’s early leaked images appeared to be confirmed at Brighton Digital 2020, when Bethesda’s managing director Ashley Cheng was seen wearing a shirt with an identical logo to the one seen on the player character’s shoulder patch in the leaks. However, there are still many fundamental questions which have yet to be answered about Starfield.

The Future Of Space Survival

As it stands there have been no leaks showing that Starfield will allow players to fly their ships through space. Fans of the studio don’t know if they’ll be playing in first-person like in The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, they don’t know if Starfield will have similar NPC or dialogue systems, and they don’t know if the game will be more about exploring and building or if it will also have a single, central plot.

However, if Starfield does have some space survival elements and No Man’s Sky-style spaceflight, it could be the big budget space-set game some fans of the genre felt they missed out on when news about Pioneer ground to a halt. Some differences have already been confirmed. Starfield will use computer generation to create its world, but that is different to the random, in-game generation used by games like No Man’s Sky. The lack of random generation makes it more likely that Starfield will have some other Bethesda staples like towns full of scripted NPCs and quests to complete. If it does, hopefully players will be have the option to roleplay the Pioneer pacifist route..

Until more is revealed about Bethesda’s upcoming project, Starfield is one of the biggest hopes for fans of hard sci-fi looking for a game with tight spaceflight, innovative physics, and a galaxy filled with planets to explore. Hopefully E3 will confirm some of these hopes rather than dash them. That doesn’t mean that Starfield can’t also have RPG elements and storylines like TES or Fallout, only that fans of games like No Man’s Sky are looking to upcoming titles like Starfield to push the space exploration genre. Pioneer could have done that, and in its absence, Starfield has the opportunity.

For now, however, fans will have to look forward to E3 2021 and hope that Bethesda will reveal a gameplay trailer or at least some more specific details about Starfield. If Bethesda can make a game which combines elements from a traditional RPG with those developed in spaceflight and exploration games, it could have a hit on its hands.

Starfield is in development.

MORE: E3 Will Hopefully End Starfield’s Silent Treatment for Good