It’s been eagerly anticipated, and Bethesda’s Starfield is finally in its end stages of completion. The developers had scheduled the futuristic RPG for an 11th November 2022 release. However, the ahead-of-its-time game has fallen behind on its slated release date yet again. Ironic, huh?
Starfield will now release in the first half of 2023 (the exact date is yet to be announced). Although initially queued up for release this November, Bethesda announced the delay in May 2022. Moreover, Microsoft’s Matt Booty has implied that the game could very well launch after Arkane’s Redfall.
Furthermore, Starfield isn’t new in the oven. Bethesda’s developers have been cooking this technological course meal for quite a while now.
Interestingly, the company filed for the game’s trademark in 2013. What’s more, it was officially teased during Bethesda’s E3 conference in 2018, followed by its official gameplay trailer launch at Microsoft and Bethesda’s Games Showcase 2022 event.
Here’s more about Starfield’s delayed release, system requirements, and platform compatibility.
Why was Starfield’s delayed?
While Bethesda originally intended to release Starfield sometime in 2020 or 2021, it had to reschedule the release date to 11th November 2022 due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, the revised release has been rescheduled again to early 2023 as the game isn’t in the finished form that the developers deem worthy of a mass layoff.
Although the game was about to launch exactly 11 years after the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, such a delay comes with a couple of valid reasons.
Firstly, there was substantial discussion about the possibility that Bethesda was planning to launch Starfield anywhere between 2020 and 2021. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic probably slowed down production and pushed it further ahead.
Secondly, Bethesda doesn’t want to disappoint the fans as it did with Fallout 76 and Cyberpunk 2077. The former received a considerably poor reception from fans in 2018, while several fans believed that the latter was released ‘before it was ready.’
Either way, as long as fans get the “refined and polished” game that Microsoft and Bethesda promised, waiting for a few more months isn’t that big a deal, or is it? After all, patience might be bitter, but the fruit is pretty sweet!
Starfield’s System Requirements
I. Listed below are Starfield’s recommended system requirements
- Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit or later
- Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K 4-Core 4.0GHz / AMD Ryzen R5 1600
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
- RAM: 16 GB
- HDD: 75 GB
- DirectX: DirectX 11
II. Listed below are Starfield’s recommended system requirements.
- Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit or later
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz / AMD FX-8320
- Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 380 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB
- RAM: 8 GB
- HDD: 75 GB
- DirectX: DirectX 11
| Minimum Specs | Recommended Specs | |
| OS | Windows 8.1 64-bit or later | Windows 10 64-bit or later |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz / AMD FX-8320 | Intel Core i7-6700K 4-Core 4.0GHz / AMD Ryzen R5 1600 |
| Memory | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon R9 380 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB | AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 | DirectX 11 |
| GPU VRam | 2 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage | 75 GB | 75 GB |
Is Starfield an Xbox exclusive?
Since Microsoft has signed a $7.5-billion deal to acquire Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, Starfield will officially be an Xbox-exclusive game. Unfortunately, this news comes as a blow to the PlayStation players who were looking forward to experiencing this futuristic epic.
Nevertheless, this might not be the best news for Xbox players either, as Bethesda is planning not to release Starfield for Xbox’s previous generation systems, such as Xbox One. In addition, it’s been confirmed that the game will only come out for Xbox Series X|S systems.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the director of Starfield, Todd Howard, said, “You don’t ever want to leave people out, right? 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.”
Will Starfield be available on PlayStation and PC?
Prior to the game’s E3 2021 Showcase event, GameBeat’s Jeff Grubb revealed that Starfield won’t release for any PlayStation or Nintendo console. This is probably because Bethesda is now a first-party Microsoft developer. However, the good news is that the game will be available for PCs.
Such news might surprise players as Microsoft has a history of not discriminating across platforms, unlike Sony and Nintendo. For example, Minecraft still receives support on Nintendo and PlayStation. Also, Microsoft went on to launch the Minecraft Dungeon games on Switch and PS5.
The fact that Microsoft is doing differently with the Bethesda games may arise from the company’s desire to increase the popularity of the Xbox Game Pass and acquire new users. Nonetheless, it’s all speculation unless Xbox releases an official statement.
About Starfield
Starfield is a space exploration game developed by the popular video game company, Bethesda. The game’s teaser launched in 2018, while the gameplay trailer came out in 2022.
Starfield will take players to the deepest depth of space. Being a Sci-Fi game, one can expect it to be brimming with stupendous weapons and supersonic spacecraft while offering a magical tone that is enough to get lost in.
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