Because it's a cruel world.
Because they wanted to make me think of this guy.
In order to get market share, they need to be different...
If you want to play Star Wars, get the Star Wars rpg
Into Babylon 5, there's an RPG for that too
Prefer Traveller, get Traveller
If you want something new, fresh and hopefully exciting, get Starfinder.
And even if they don't give you full science fiction, I fully expect that there will be enough crunch and rules scope for people to go as much science fantasy or as much science fiction as they want.
:D
Every time someone mentions that it will be more "science-fantasy" than "science-fiction" I cringe a little bit more in fear.
Get ready to cringe often, then; it's not a science fiction game.
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There's also a game called Dragonstar published by Fantasy Flight Games in the early days of D&D 3.5 that was a similar balance between classic high fantasy and relatively hard science fiction to what Starfinder promises and if that's the case then things will be alright as Dragonstar was pretty good.Every time someone mentions that it will be more "science-fantasy" than "science-fiction" I cringe a little bit more in fear.
I mean, look, I've heard that the "Spelljammer" setting is not well spoken of in the Paizo office, but *sheesh* this sure is sounding more and more like that than Traveller, or Star Frontiers.
So good it died an inglorious death (but to be honest, it wasn't alone. (Lots of the early 3e race to the top of the mountain lets release an rpg failed too).
Dragonstar filled a niche that other games didn't at the time. Science Fantasy however isn't a huge market. People playing scifi games generally play more .. scifi games. For all its 'Science' influences, Spelljammer really didn't have a lot. Yes you had flying sailing ships and varieties on the theme and guns, but there just wasn't a who lot of the Science part in Spelljammer. It was also very niche within our Niche industry.
Science fantasy spans a pretty broad scope, actually.
Spelljammer was mostly "Sword and Planet" in the vein of Burroughs/Verne (with elements of steam-punk). However, by what has been said, this is not the (primary) direction that will be taken with Starfinder.
What has been revealed is that Starfinder with have both magic and futuristic technology: more along the lines of Rifts, Shadowrun, and Star Wars. It will also not be science fantasy where magic ("psionics," in many cases) is limited and mostly overshadowed by technology (or technology stands in for fantasy magic), like Star Trek, the Humanx novels by Alan Dean Foster, or most other space opera with empaths/telepaths.
Based on the existing comments from Paizo staff members and the content in Distant Worlds (which provides many of the concepts that Starfinder will build on), Starfinder will attempt to span much of that scope. It will be a "kitchen sink" system/setting that will allow multiple styles, rather than being narrowly focused on one. So you should be able to remove or tone down the magic (just as you can with Pathfinder) if you want a "harder" scifi-ish campaign; or you can import/convert the Technologist feat and the timeworn technology rules from the Technology Guide if you want a more "Metamorphosis Alpha" feel. In other words, this is supposed to be a feature instead of a bug.