Set to be the first new universe from legendary developer Bethesda Game Studios in 25 years, Starfield features a brand-new story, and procedurally generated worlds, allowing players to create their own unique characters and explore the universe with unprecedented freedom.
Here is everything we know so far on the expected Starfield release date & gameplay.
Story
The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling on new planets, and living as a space-faring people. From small beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking epic artifacts throughout the galaxy – The story of Starfield revolves around the creation of new characters, and players have the freedom to explore the universe in new ways and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems.
The game teaser showed off some spaceships and a vast landscape. The setting of the game looks heavily focused on Sci-Fi, unlike their Elder Scroll games.
Recently, Bethesda has shared some new details on the story and quests Starfield in a set of new developer interviews. Starfield is set in space where there are different space systems and planets with cities to explore, and interestingly, it will be possible to visit our home planet Earth as well. It is called “Old Neighborhood” in the game and some quests will take place there too.
The game’s prime story has multiple branching paths, similar to Fallout games. Sidequests will be there as well and the developers have made sure that the sidequests will also be expansive to the main story of the game. The game will include RPG elements and branching storylines will be the focus of story and sidequests will certainly be there as well.
The fate of some characters will depend on the choices made by the players during the story. The NPCs that the players will encounter throughout the game will have their view of your character based on the actions that you have made, and they can also help in certain quests to solve objectives or perform various tasks.
Starfield Gameplay
Bethesda is known for its expandable open-world RPGs, like The Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series. However, both series’ massive worlds pale in comparison to the universe we will be exploring in Starfield.
During June 2022’s Xbox-Bethesda Games Showcase, Howard confirmed players will be able to visit “over 1,000 planets” throughout the game. While a handful of these locations are full-fledged cities, like the hub city of New Atlantis, many will be procedurally generated and open for exploration. Others, such as Kreet, lie somewhere in the middle, with outposts occupied by treacherous space bandits.
Graphics
Bethesda’s Todd Howard promises that Bethesda Game Studio’s upcoming projects will be getting a big upgrade with a revamped engine.
In Howard’s statement on the acquisition, he walks through how working hand-in-hand with Microsoft has led the company to make technical leaps for its new games.
“With each new console cycle, we evolved together. From bringing mods to consoles with Fallout 4, now over a billion downloads, to the latest technologies fueling Xbox Series X/S,” Howard said. “These new systems are optimized for the vast worlds we love to create, with generational leaps not just in graphics, but CPU and data streaming as well. It’s led to our largest engine overhaul since The Elder Scrolls Oblivion (2006), with all new technologies powering our first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, as well as The Elder Scrolls VI.”
Oblivion released in 2006 and represented a huge shift from previous games in the series. Since then, though, Bethesda has often been criticized for its engine showing its age, especially with regard to strange bugs in its open worlds. Howard didn’t mention the focus of these overhauls, but his comment suggests we’ll be able to tell the difference when Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 debut. Though Skyrim has seen releases on modern consoles that improve the visuals, the differences aren’t all that huge.
Sound Design
Mark Lampert, the audio director of Bethesda Game Studios, and Inon Zur, the composer of Starfield, are passionate to talk about the importance of sound design and the artistic process of their work. They also discuss the numerous factors that influence a player’s experience and how they found answers to some of the questions that are at the heart of the game’s music. They also have a series on the internet where they talk about the game’s sound design and how it impacts the user experience.
Bethesda is certainly aiming for the stars with its massive space RPG though, as it includes more than 250,000 lines of dialogue, the biggest city ever featured in one of its games, and a main quest longer than Skyrim’s and Fallout 4’s.
Platforms
Starfield is confirmed to be released on Xbox Series X|S and PC, thanks to Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Bethesda. Game director Todd Howard said being able to focus exclusively on Xbox and PC is in the best interests of Starfield. However, he definitely hears and feels for PlayStation owners who will not be able to play it.
“You don’t ever want to leave people out, right?” Howard said back in June 2021. “But at the end of the day, your ability to focus and say, this is the game I want to make, these are the platforms I want to make it on and being able to really lean in on those is going to make for a better product.”
More recently, Howard talked about how he is feeling a new kind of pressure to deliver with Starfield because it is a first-party game meant to help sell consoles and drive adoption to Xbox Game Pass. “We’ve never been kind of the platform seller, you know ‘the game’ for a platform for a period,” Howard said. “And so, there’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of responsibility there to make sure that we deliver for everybody.”
Some part of the Bethesda fan base continues to believe that Starfield could release on PlayStation, but that seems unlikely given that Microsoft now owns Bethesda. Sony has always done this. They buy a studio and then the games made by that studio are kept exclusive to Sony hardware. But recently some of the first party games have started appearing on PC. So, we can just hope that PlayStation users might just get lucky.
Starfield Release Date
Starfield was first announced in 2018 with a Teaser that showed some game in development footage. Later in 2021, we got another trailer with a release window that game will be released in November 2022. But then, no thanks to the global pandemic and work from home situation, the game is now slated to release in the first half of 2023.
Recently, Phill Spencer said in an interview that both Arcane studio’s next game “Redfall” and Bethesda’s Starfield have been delayed so players get the most polished version of the games.
Pricing
Earlier this generation of gaming, there was a discussion of games going pricier but until now we never got that price tag for AAA games. But it seems that Microsoft is going to start this trend. Bethesda’s Starfield is going to be pricy, as the game will cost $70 to own due to the “content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles” according to the company. Although, both games will be available as day one releases through Xbox Game Pass, which is a huge win for existing Game Pass owners.
Preorders
Starfield is currently not available for preorder. However, we will be sure to update this feature once listings are available. We will update this as soon as any information is available.
