Let’s just get down to business. is starfield delayed?
Officially no. And to be fair to Microsoft and Bethesda Game Studios, they already told us we wouldn’t be hearing about Todd Howard’s next epic RPG during Wednesday’s Developer Direct showcase. There will be a standalone showcase starfield Sometime. It’s still one hell of an elephant not in the room, especially when two of the four games shown – redfall and The Elder Scrolls Online‘s Necrom expansion – are large Bethesda projects that start in May and June respectively. It doesn’t seem likely that Bethesda will increase interest in these projects (or starfield) by packing this game into a May or June release window.
Remember, during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase last June, Microsoft more or less wrote a promissory note to fans and promised to do so starfield would be part of a large catalog of highly anticipated games launching in the first half of 2023 (and available as same-day first-party games to Xbox Game Pass subscribers).
The updates we got from Xbox and Bethesda on Wednesday show that the first half of Microsoft’s 2023 gaming calendar now looks like this:
- April 18 — Minecraft Legends
- 2.May – redfall
- 20th June – The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom
- TBA 2023 — Forza Motorsport
Unless the Xbox folks come up with a surprise shadow cast à la Tango Gameworks Hi-Fi Rushplanned for starfield – which seems ill-advised – the release of the sci-fi RPG is starting to feel slippery. (How it is forza‘s; Microsoft and Turn 10 don’t seem ready to commit again to a first-half 2023 window for their racing game.)
The latest information about starfieldThe launch of came last May, in which Bethesda informed fans that it had been pushed back to a launch window in the first half of 2023 (along with redfall.) Microsoft made a big deal out of telling fans during last year’s E3-along summer presentation that all the things they wanted to play would arrive by the first half of 2023. starfield has been implied to be one of those things.
In November, Howard, creative director at Bethesda Game Studios, spoke to podcaster Lex Fridman about it starfield and the difficult decision to move the game from a November 2022 launch to the slightly softer, less definite window it has now the first time around.
“I wish it was soon” said Howard. “We want it out too. And I wish they hadn’t taken so long. But they do.”
We asked representatives from Xbox and Bethesda if starfield should be considered late. It’s doubtful they’ll want to comment on this, but if they do we’ll be sure to update it here.
