After three years in darkness, Starfield took centre stage in the Xbox & Bethesda conference during E3 2021. However, those who were looking forward to its arrival on the PlayStation might want to sit down before they read this news.
"For me, Starfield is the Han Solo simulator," said the studio's managing director in an interview following the reveal trailer. "Get in a ship, explore the galaxy, do fun stuff." I mean, absolutely. There will be a metric tonne of players who will be champing at the bit to gallivant here and there in the Milky Way, leaving a trail of chaos in their wake. Todd Howard, the big cheese at Bethesda, likened Starfield to "Skyrim in space," and I've got a hunch that he's holding his cards close to his chest with this statement. Over the course of a decade, Skyrim has charmed countless gamers from its original launch, to the amazingly creative community of modders, to its three hefty expansions, to the fact that you can play it on an Amazon Alexa. Really. If Starfield even has half of the impact that Skyrim had, then the teams at Bethesda and Microsoft will retire on a sunny island in the Pacific, sipping margaritas.
The trailer for this upcoming space RPG is a feast for the eyes for fans of that grimy and grubby sci-fi found in Alien, Firefly and SOMA. Yeah, I did wedge in a reference to one of my favourite games there. Watch the Starfield trailer and tell me I'm wrong, though.
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One of the most important parts of this reveal on the weekend was that the game will be exclusive to PC, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S when it releases on November 11th, 2022. It won't be coming to PlayStation platforms, and Bethesda senior vice president of marketing and communication Pete Hines explained why focusing on a singular version makes for a better game overall. "You're not worrying about, 'How does it work on this box versus how does it work on that box?'" he told GameSpot. "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. Narrow focus always helps."
However, he did express regret over the situation for PlayStation owners who were excited for Starfield. "I totally understand if you are unhappy or p*ssed or whatever. I get it," he began. "Those are all real feelings and frustrations. How should you deal with that? I haven't the foggiest idea. I would never presume to say, 'Here's how you can make it better and feel better'."
"I don't know how to allay the fears and concerns of 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. But if you want to play Starfield, [it's] PC and Xbox. Sorry. All I can really say is, I apologise," concluded Hines.
Featured Image Credit: Kerde Severin via Pexels, BethesdaTopics: Xbox, starfield, News, PlayStation, Bethesda