Starfield, how long will the journey among the stars last?

Starfield

On 21 and 22 June there will be Amazon Prime Day, two days full of offers and limited-time discounts! In order not to miss a single one, take a look at our dedicated page.

The E3 2021 just passed has also left us Starfield as a gift. Not the full game of course, but a trailer with the release date. We will never know why Bethesda (and specifically Todd Howard) did not present the new original IP of the studio after more than 20 years, but one of the reasons could be linked to the amount of content present in the game, which will obviously affect longevity. .

Todd Howard, during an interview, thought about how long Starfield could be. Howard was unable to go into details, especially considering that development is still active, but if you expect a very long adventure from the new role-playing game from Bethesda, you should know that it will most likely be so. The benchmark used by the game director is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one of the most loved and well-known titles, so much so that it is still played today. “We designed Starfield to be played over a long period of time,” Howard's words to best describe the idea of ​​longevity that Bethesda has in mind.

Howard has been in the industry for a very long time though. and knows perfectly well how not to create unmotivated hype. “I don't want to raise expectations […] we have designed a lot of locations and buildings, which we have never done before. And we want exploration to be the basis of everything ". He cautions therefore: Starfield on the other hand is a decidedly large project, also considering that this time the exploration will take place in a completely different concept than the post-apocalyptic or medieval one.

Longevity aside, Starfield is definitely one of the projects to keep under observation. Not only because it is a completely different game in terms of setting but also because it will be the first game by Todd Howard and associates to debut exclusively on the Xbox console. The release date is currently set for November 11, 2022, a clear reference to Skyrim, which debuted on November 11, 2011.

Starfield will only be released on Xbox consoles (and Windows 10 PCs): you can play it on Xbox Series S, still available on Amazon.

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Bethesda exec says he’s “sorry” for lack of PS5 Starfield

Bethesda Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications Pete Hines talks to GameSpot about Starfield.

This week, Microsoft and Bethesda confirmed that Starfield will be coming exclusively to Xbox Series X/S and PC next year. And while that kind of exclusivity deal had been hinted at and heavily suspected by many since Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda's parent company, the announcement still came as sad news for PlayStation 5 owners hoping to play the upcoming space epic.

Bethesda Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications Pete Hines said he can certainly understand how PS5 owners must feel. In a video interview with GameSpot Wednesday, he offered his sympathy and an apology to PS5 owners upset about the move.

'I don't know how to allay the concerns of consumer and PlayStation 5 fans other than to say I'm a PlayStation 5 player as well, and I've played games on that console, and there's games I'm going to continue to play on it,' Hines said. 'But if you want to play Starfield, [it's] Xbox and PC. Sorry. All I can say is I apologize because I'm certain that that's frustrating to folks, but there's not a whole lot I can do about it.'

At the same time, Hines seemed to suggest that Xbox Cloud Gaming could provide a way for players who don't have an Xbox or a gaming PC to access Starfield through the 'Xbox ecosystem.' Hines mentioned that Xbox chief Phil Spencer 'has talked about how they're looking to expand that and... looking to bring Xbox games to folks who don't own a Series S or X or even a PC but want to play the games that we're bringing to Game Pass.' That's an apparent reference to Microsoft's recently announced plans to expand Xbox Cloud Gaming to many Smart TVs and generic web browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Edge.

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Hines also said Starfield's exclusivity could help its developers focus on the gameplay experience rather than compatibility with additional platforms. 'I'm here to tell you, and any [developer] will tell you this, [when] you go to fewer platforms, your development gets more streamlined,' he said. 'You're not worrying about, 'Well, how does it work on this box versus how does it work on that box...' We're not making it on that box, so it just needs to run as well as possible on this one [and] on a PC. A narrow focus always helps...'

Starfield concept art.

Starfield concept art.

Starfield concept art.

Starfield concept art.

Starfield concept art.

Starfield concept art.

Starfield concept art.

Starfield concept art.

A hint at Starfield's level of character customization.

A hint at Starfield's level of character customization.

A hint at Starfield's level of character customization.

That statement echoes comments Bethesda producer Todd Howard made to The Telegraph this week, when he said that, 'by focusing on those platforms [Xbox and PC], you really get to lean in a lot on making it the best it can be for those systems.'

In that interview, Howard also said he had 'a little bit' of reservation about not having a PS5 version of Starfield. 'You don’t ever want to leave people out, right?' But Howard also suggested that Xbox Cloud Gaming means 'we see it actually opening up more and more and more so that people’s ability to play our games—via Game Pass and other things—their ability to play our games doesn’t go down. It goes up dramatically... I will just say I want everybody to have the ability to play it in some fashion.'

Back in October, Howard said it was 'hard to imagine' a game like the upcoming Elder Scrolls VI being exclusive to Microsoft's platforms. But that was before Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda was finalized in March, at a time when Howard admitted the two companies hadn't fully discussed the details of any multiplatform publishing agreements. 'We haven't gone through all of that, to be honest,' he said at the time.