During the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase at E3 2021, we got quite the surprise to kick off the show. Bethesda’s Todd Howard came out to speak before anyone else, and he dropped a bomb on us in the form of a Starfield release date.
The look we got at the game was CGI, and will likely be forgotten in time (save for that potential Elder Scrolls 6 Easter egg). It seems the focus was really about telling everyone when they’d finally be able to play Starfield. With that, let’s talk about the date, and about everything else we know with regard to Bethesda’s still-in-development space adventure.
The Starfield release date is Nov. 11, 2022
If you’re wondering why that particular date looks so familiar, think back to the last time Bethesda truly rocked the RPG world. It was with the release of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. And I’m talking about the first release of the game here, not the dozen or so re-releases that came after.
Skyrim dropped on Nov. 11, 2011. So by the time Starfield rolls around on that same day in 2022, 11 years will have passed since we all woke up as prisoners for the very first time. I don’t think the date Bethesda and Microsoft chose here was an accident. This is clearly Bethesda saying to the world, “This is our next Skyrim. This is going to be a big deal.”
There will be one key difference between that prior Bethesda release and this newer one, and it has to do with Bethesda’s corporate situation now. The company is owned by Microsoft, thus Starfield will be an Xbox and PC exclusive. It appears we can kiss the days of multiplatform Bethesda goodbye after Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo are out.
But that Xbox exclusivity does come with one pretty enormous benefit: Starfield will be a day-one Xbox Game Pass release. If you’re part of that ecosystem, that is a pretty handsome reward for your $10 or $15 a month subscription, never mind the hundreds of other games you can already play right now.
We still don’t have handle on what Starfield is
If there’s one thing to lament about Starfield‘s time at E3 2021, it’s that we still don’t have a strong sense of what this game will be when all is said and done. It’s an RPG — we know that much. But will it fall into that space of feeling like an Elder Scrolls title or a Fallout game? Or is Bethesda going for something totally new here? Will this game seem like something totally different?
With Starfield not set to release until late 2022, it’ll probably be a while before we get more definitive answers on the matter. It could be many more months before we get a substantial look at actual gameplay. We’ll have our eyes on Microsoft and Bethesda in the meantime, though. Should more Starfield news come our way, we’ll be sure to get it in front of you.
