Only 10% of the planets inStarfieldwill have life seeded on them, according to Bethesda game director Todd Howard.Starfieldis an ambitious project and much like with every Todd Howard game Bethesda is making lofty promises ahead of the game’s launch. For example, Howard and Bethesda have already said thatStarfieldwill have over 1,000 planets for players to visit and explore. Just a fraction of those planets will have life, however, though Howard believes even desolate planets will be worth visiting.

Obviously, it’s not realistic to expect Bethesda to handcraft over 1,000 worlds to explore inStarfield. It’s already confirmed that these planets will be procedurally generated, with splashes of handcrafted content spread throughout. Howard has already said thatStarfieldwill feature more handcrafted contentthan “SkyrimandFallout 4combined.” Even planets with life will mostly be procedurally generated. This has led many to wonder if visiting planets will prove to be somewhat dull.

That’s exactly the question that was posed to Todd Howard in an interview on the Kinda Funny Xcast, recently. Howard was asked if, on these1,000+ procedurally-generatedStarfieldplanets, are there really going to be things to do that are worth the player’s time. Howard, as he is known to do, doesn’t answer the question directly. He provides context that might lead eventualStarfieldplayers to think about the question differently.

Howard explains that the way Bethesda thinks about it is thatwhen aStarfieldplayer enters a new system, there’s a menu of things to do. With a scientifically-minded approach, not every system will be full of planets with life on them. As such, only 10% of planets will foster life. That only makes sense. That doesn’t make the remaining 90% of planets not worth visiting, of course. But they’re important in bringingStarfieldto life, to provide a sense of scale to the universe, even if players decide they aren’t worth visiting.

There will still be reasons tovisit these desolate planets inStarfield. Howard explains that they’ll have valuable resources to mine, and that there’s a chance they’ll have procedurally generated or maybe even hand-created locations to visit. He also mentions a Buzz Aldrin quote about the Moon, which he described as “magnificent desolation.” In other words, there’s beauty and something more profound to find on these lifeless planets, too.

As for whetherStarfieldplayers will genuinely find reasons to visit these desolate planets, most game players already know the answer to that question – probably not.Starfieldis going to be packed with authored content.Starfieldwill have a massive campaign, lots of side-story content, and plenty else to keep players busy for dozens of hours. Most players probably won’t explore much, so it’s not surprising if Bethesda chose not to make those lifeless planets (or even most of the ones with life) more exciting to visit.Starfieldplayers will be able to decide that for themselves, of course.

Starfieldlaunches on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.