07/19/2023 After further inspection of the Starfield Direct, one ship has an overall value of 13,460 credits, or a buying/selling value of around 45 Starfield sandwiches.
Turns out the Starfield economy might be completely broken. While Bethesda RPG games aren’t exactly known for their robust and realistic take on economic practices, we’ve discovered how absolutely bonkers the space economy is before the Starfield release date. So if you’re worried about how much a spaceship costs in Starfield, don’t be; it turns out they’re relatively cheap.
With Starfield sales already underway before the game is even out, both the in-game and real-world costs around Bethesda’s next game are worth keeping an eye on – especially considering the ratio of sandwiches to spaceships.
You read that right, two pieces of bread with meat in the middle aren’t just relegated to helping you become a Starfield sandwich bandit, as the ratio of sandwiches to spaceships is kind of wild.
Originally highlighted on Reddit with a fake image of Starfield ship creation, I decided to take another look at the official Starfield Direct and compare some actual ship prices to those of one sandwich, to see what we’ll all be spending on lunch, relative to space travel, come September.
One Starfield food item is the “Patty Melt,” and this toasted sandwich and crinkle-cut fries combo comes in at a value of 295 credits. It’s hard to say outright if inflation is hitting Todd Howard’s universe as hard as our own, but I sure could go for a toasted burger and cheese sandwich on my intergalactic road trip.
During the Starfield Direct, a brief look at ship creation shows the cost to outright buy one ranging from 159,450 credits all the way up to 656,300 – or 540 and 2,224 Patty Melts respectively. I’m not going to compare the average price of a sports car to a Five Guys grilled cheese and fries and see how that stacks up against Starfield, though, because I think we’d all just leave considerably more upset about our own sandwich-to-vehicle economy compared to Bethesda’s Starfield.
While I originally thought a spaceship was worth a much smaller number of sandwiches, 500 is still criminally low (or high, depending on what angle you look at the Starfield economy from). Keep in mind that we also aren’t entirely sure if the “value” refers to the buying or selling price of a ship (I’m guessing it’s the buy price), but the point still stands, those are some expensive sandwiches.
I’ve already talked about how the logistics of Tamriel would make merely existing in Skyrim a living hell (even by the game’s standards), and the upcoming Starfield is no exception. We’re going to be running around in a universe where we’re being screwed over by either big sandwich, big spaceship, or both – let’s be real, it’s probably both.
In the meantime, we’ve got everything you need to know about Starfield procedural generation alongside a complete breakdown of every Starfield creature we currently know about from previously released gameplay. Still looking for more? While a good Starfield wiki can be a handy source of information, our new Starfield Database goes further, offering you daily news, searchable databanks, and even interactive tools.