Starfield fans are debating whether its Direct might have given us a look at the ruined Earth

For those who’ve invested thousands of hours into the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 4, the release of Starfield, which is now pencilled in for September 6, can’t come soon enough.

While many of these would-be spacers have been left to speculate about everything from the game’s potential mods and DLCs, to the exact number of hairstyles it’ll offer, yesterday’s massive Starfield Direct offered a chance to get plenty of fresh answers regarding what it’ll offer.

While the biggest talking point coming out of it seems to be a 30 FPS cap on consoles, the show also left people with lots to get hyped up about, including what some fans on Reddit believe might be some shots of the game’s version of Earth.

Are you excited to try and discover what happened to Earth in Starfield?

The particular clips in question, which can be seen at the start of the game’s new trailer and during the section of the Direct’s deep-dive which covers some details about the player’s quest, show a large arch-like structure on the surface of a planet that looks pretty barren.

These shots have launched some fans on Reddit into a whirlwind of speculation, based on the idea that it could be a ruined version of the Gateway Arch located in the American city of St. Louis.

While the author of the post at the head of the thread about it, user Corviak, seemed pretty convinced that the arch shown in the trailer was indeed the one from St. Louis, others were a little more sceptical.

“I'm not sold on this being Earth,” argued user user2002b, reasoning: “Look at the sky. The sun is up and you can see stars. You can't do that on Earth. Also the sky [isn’t] that colour, and exactly how is that arch still standing if the surrounding city has been pulverised to dust, with nothing but a barren, rocky desert remaining?”

User 0orion, while musing that it’d be a “strange landmark” to include, said: “The arch is a poignant symbol for [the] westward expansion of the United States. It’s got some topical meaning behind [it] for a game that will, undoubtedly, involve exploring space.”

Meanwhile, some prospective players shared their excitement over the idea of being able to explore a ruined Earth, with user -Captain- musing “there is definitely going to be some interesting lore to find there,” and electron-shock declaring: “Hopefully it's got accurate geography [and] we can set up outposts wherever.”

Starfield Lead Quest Designer Will Shen confirmed that solving the mystery of what happened to the Earth will be part of the game’s main quest in a video last year, though whether that’ll involve a trip to Missouri remains unclear as of writing.

Make sure to follow us for lots of guides to Starfield’s world and mechanics. You can also check out our latest mods of the month for some killer Skyrim and Fallout mods that’ll help tide you over until it arrives.