New Starfield Trailer Introduces The 'Settled Systems'

Ever since Bethesda's Starfield was given a release date at E3 2021, we've been waiting for more information about the game. Slowly but surely, Bethesda has started to reveal new details about Starfield, at various points discussing the design philosophy behind the game and revealing three in-game cities. Today we're learning even more in a new Starfield trailer that centers on the "Settled Systems" in the Starfield universe.

In the new trailer, Bethesda Game Studios design director Emil Pagliarulo explains that Starfield takes place in the year 2330 in a "relatively small pocket of the Milky Way" called the Settled Systems. The Settled Systems is an area that expands about 50 light-years out from our own solar system, so while humanity has started to spread through the universe, it seems that it hasn't made it very far yet in the grand scheme of things.

Pagliarulo then takes us back in time, saying that 20 years before the start of Starfield, the United Colonies and the Free Star Collective fought the Colony War. While that war is over by the time the game picks up and the two factions are at an unsteady peace, Pagliarulo says that the Settled Systems can still be a dangerous place.

We'll encounter some of those dangers as a member of the organization named Constellation. We'll be exploring the "deepest reaches" of the Settled Systems, so it sounds like we'll be venturing to some places that don't see a lot of traffic, human or otherwise.

Of course, much of this trailer is comprised of concept art and the parts that aren't reuse shots from the release date announcement trailer we saw back at E3. Given Starfield's release date of November 22nd, 2022, we probably aren't going to get our first proper look at the game for a while yet, but we'll let you know when that comes down the pipeline.