Starfield Could Potentially Be Delayed To Late 2023

Starfield has been one of the most highly anticipated games in recent memory. Being Bethesda’s first major release since Fallout 76 (or Fallout 4 depending on what you think about 76), fans have been particularly excited for Bethesda’s first original IP since Elder Scrolls. 

Major Takeaways:

• Starfield is likely to be delayed.
• New release date assumed to be late 2023. 

Starfield has experienced a lot of delays over the years with a somewhat final release date slated for early next year after it was delayed from November 11, this year. However, it appears that Starfield might be due to another delay to either Holiday 2023 or even sometime next year. 

The rumor stems from an update to the game’s SteamDB listing which states the release date as “December 29, 2023”. December 29 is obviously a placeholder date, but it does lead to the conclusion that Starfield could be in the process of getting delayed yet again. 

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to assume that Starfield is likely going to be pushed into the Holidays next year or even into 2024. However, based on Bethesda’s previous record, it’s highly probable that this suggests a late 2023 release. 

This is corroborated by the fact that almost all of Bethesda’s games release near the Holidays between late-October to and mid-November. Even Fallout 76, Bethesda’s online-focused live-service Fallout game, was released on October 23, 2018. 

This trend seems to suggest that Starfield will launch in the same timeframe as all of Bethesda’s other titles. It also has to be mentioned that in June this year, Game Director Todd Howard told TechRadar to expect The Elder Scrolls VI to release in 2024 at the earliest, after giving Starfield some time in the spotlight.

Based on this, it is even more likely that Starfield will be coming out next year, just not in the first half of 2023 as it was initially intended to. 

As for Bethesda’s other in-development title, according to Todd Howard, the Elder Scrolls VI is still in pre-production, and it will be followed by a new mainline entry in the Fallout franchise with Fallout 5. 

“Yes, Elder Scrolls 6 is in pre-production and, you know, we’re going to be doing Fallout 5 after that, so our slate’s pretty full going forward for a while”

With Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI as well as an upcoming Fallout game, it appears that Bethesda have their hands full for now. Starfield also had a preview early this year during the XBOX and Bethesda showcase. While the reception to the preview was generally positive, many people noticed the poor performance during the preview.

During the preview, it was also confirmed by Howard that the game would have over one thousand fully explorable planets. While the majority of these would be procedurally generated, Howard also mentioned that players can freely ignore these in favor of properly hand-crafted content.

Howard also mentioned that the game’s main quest would be around 30-40 hours in length which is supposedly about 20% longer than other Bethesda games.

Not that I would know since I explore for 50 hours and then realize I still have the main story left to do. Here’s hoping Starfield once again lives up to that promise of exploration of past Bethesda games.