Xbox and Microsoft Delayed Starfield to Ensure its Quality

Starfield is going to be one of the biggest games of the year, and quite frankly, biggest games of this generation. The ideas, size, scale and concept of the game could have lasting impressions on the gaming industry as a whole, if not only the RPG genre. That’s no small claim to make, but with everything we’ve seen thus far, it seems a safe bet. That’s unless they’ve proper Peter Molyneauxed it of course.

Unfortunately for Peter Molyneaux, Lionhead and his Fable series have always been the comparison for any game developer that may be over-promising on their ideas, but we’re hoping with the added development time afforded to Bethesda once they were bought by Microsoft, this won’t be one of those times.

Related: “These should be standard for all games!”: Bethesda Releases Starfield Shorts Adding to the Lore of the Universe

Starfield Should Already be Here

Any Starfield and Bethesda fan worth their salt will soon tell you that it was originally supposed to have launched last year, and we should already be playing it. Of course that isn’t the case, and a year’s worth of development time later, you’d hope that the finished product we’ll be getting will be far bigger and better than what we would have gotten in 2022.

Speaking on the Giant Bomb podcast, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer disclosed a few important, if not surprising details surrounding Bethesda’s acquisition by Microsoft, and their involvement in Starfield.

“Truth be told, when the acquisition closed this game had a significantly earlier ship date than where we’re actually launching in” 

With Starfield releasing at an incredibly tumultuous time for Microsoft, it’s no surprise that the platform is doing everything they can to ensure that it’s going to be the success everyone expects. From throwing money at the developer to suggesting delays, they’re clearly incredibly passionate about the project, if for no other reason than to increase profits. However it could be more than that, with Microsoft instructing Bethesda to use some of the delay time to mimic Nintendo’s strategy with Tears of the Kingdom, and taking time aside to purely focus on removing any and all bugs possible.

For a game of Starfield’s size, that is a gargantuan task. With New Atlantis reportedly the biggest city that Bethesda has ever created, a base and ship building mechanic and over one thousand planets – with one hundred supporting lifeforms of various shapes and sizes -, Starfield probably started with more bugs than a game has actionable events!

Related: Unfortunately Starfield Will be Unplayable for a lot of Players at Launch

Also speaking to the Giant Bomb podcast in June, Microsoft Game Studios head Matt Booty had this to say on Starfield’s Q&A testing, and lack of bugs.

“We have an awful lot of people internally playing it. Working with Todd and the team, I see bug counts and just by the numbers, if it shipped today, this would have the fewest bugs that any game from Bethesda has ever shipped with.”

That is both the biggest flex and biggest self-burn imaginable, with Starfield being so big, yet Bethesda having such a notable history of bug-riddled games, it is still quite the impressive claim.

Related: “Microsoft needed few dollars”: Microsoft Wanted to Hurt Sony So Bad It Blocked Starfield Despite Data Predicting at Least 10 Million Unit Sales from PS5 Owners

Whether the extra development time Microsoft afforded Bethesda has been used wisely is anyone’s guess, and whether that claim regarding bugs is true is unknown, but we’re still excited for the release of Starfield, and with every day passing we’re getting a little closer.

Will you be playing Starfield? And would you rather it have released last year as planned, or are you glad to wait for a (hopefully) better end product? Let us know in the comments!

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