That Starfield is "deliberately made to be played for a long time" sounds like a no-brainer. In fact, however, Todd Howard says this is a lesson Bethesda learned from feedback from Skyrim and Fallout . In the Game Maker's Notebook podcast , Howard tells Insomniac's Ted Price:

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This is a game deliberately made to be played for a long time. One of the things we've learned from our previous games, like Skyrim, like Fallout, is that people want to play them for a very long time.

It was important to Todd and company that it would feel natural to continue playing after the campaign, which Starfield's new game plus solution will ensure. (One you shouldn't google for spoiler reasons.)

Howard adds that games that tend to be played for longer periods of time indirectly become "live games" in a way. The players keep the games alive by playing them, and the developers provide them with new content and keep the interest alive. It becomes a kind of cycle.

It remains to be seen how long-lived Starfield will be. That it will live for a long time, yes, we take that for granted.