Xbox

STARFIELD

Developer Bethesda Game Studios Publisher Xbox Game Studios Format PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release November 11,2022

Perhaps the two most important words of Microsoft’s showcase came just a few minutes in, at the end of a teaser for Bethesda’s next open-world epic: ‘Xbox exclusive’. It wasn’t the only time we would see them, but this was the moment it became crystal clear that Microsoft would never have spent $7.5bn on the studio behind Skyrim and Fallout if it didn’t plan to keep at least some of its output to itself. Granted, it may be denying itself millions of pounds’ worth of business from PlayStation owners. But a chunk of Sony’s audience may now be wondering if they made the right call – and considering a Game Pass subscription. Despite what some commentators would have you believe, from a platform holder’s point of view it’s surely the smart call.

If at this stage what the game represents is more significant than what it is, that’s because the latter remains ill-defined. “For the first time in over 25 years, we’re creating a new universe,” Todd Howard said, a statement that presumably was supposed to be exciting but merely made the developer appear remarkably conservative. From a more generous standpoint, you could say it’s been so successful by sticking to what it’s good at. Speaking to the Washington Post, Bethesda’s Ashley Cheng likened Starfield to a “Han Solo simulator”. But Howard’s own description is probably more instructive: “Skyrim in space.”

There is an understandable pressure on a game whose teaser reminds us that Bethesda’s first journey to the stars has been a quarter-century in the making. So it’s no great surprise that neither Howard nor the teaser were prepared