With Bethesda's E3 2017 showcase right around the corner, fans of the publisher and developer have been heavily speculating as to what the company will highlight during its press conference this Sunday. As it so happens, one of the major pieces of scuttlebutt that has been making its rounds on the Internet involves the possibility of the studio using its presence at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo to announce a space-faring RPG known as Starfield.

This rumor comes courtesy of a post by a leaker on 4chan's /v/ board who says they are familiar with Bethesda Game Studios' forthcoming release docket, declaring that out of the announcements at E3, one is Starfield, which is to be a first-person sci-fi open world RPG featuring five to ten different races. What's perhaps most outlandish, though, is the fact that the leaker has said the game "takes place in the Fallout universe . . . in the future and far away from earth."

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The 4chan leaker went on to state that Bethesda's Starfield will have "space travel and hub worlds" in addition to randomly generated game worlds in order to cater to fans of Minecraft and the sandbox genre. That said, though, there will still be areas that retain Bethesda's signature gameplay and design styles so as to incorporate a sense of consistency as players progress throughout the title.

If the leaker is to be believed, Bethesda actually had Starfield in the conceptual stages around Fallout 3's release way back in 2008. According to the 4chan post, the title went into "low-tier" pre-production sometime after the release of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Once Fallout 4 came out, the purported sci-fi game went into full pre-production, and once Bethesda put out all of the DLC for the latest entry in the post-apocalyptic RPG franchise, Starfield entered into full development.

All things considered, with the 4chan leaker's information being nothing more than a rumor at this point, it's important for Bethesda fans to take each detail with a grain of salt. That said, though, it wouldn't be too strange if Starfield does go on to get announced at E3 2017, especially since Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax filed a trademark renewal for the property just last year. Not to mention, the artwork on the invitation for Bethesda's press conference teased two major, albeit undisclosed reveals – one of which could very well be Starfield.

Bethesda's E3 2017 press conference begins at 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET.

Source: 4chan