Bethesda Softworks is one of the most well-recognized game studios in the modern gaming landscape, showing a great knack for developing gargantuan open worlds with a great focus on player agency and freedom.The studio has now been acquired by Microsoft, following the acquisition of parent company ZeniMax Media for a whopping $7.5 billion.
Ever since the acquisition has been completed, fans have been curious to see what such a deal brings to Xbox, Bethesda, and gaming as a whole. While there’s little to no doubt thatStarfieldmight be the first in the showings, some fans have shown concern regarding the potential quality of the game at launch. This can mostly be attributed to theFallout 76launch debacle, but there’s a multitude of reasons to remain positive aboutStarfield’s development and eventual release.
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Starfield’s Importance
Starfieldis the studio’s newest IP in over 25 years, and therefore it makes sense to garner the most positive first impression that it can. A considerably larger scale doesn’t help either in this regard, and this could be one of the many reasons whyStarfieldhas remained silent for so long. While that’s not to state thatFallout 76was indispensable, but a tight budget and various deadlines took the best of the team’s ever-increasing ambition. To their credit,Fallout 76has turned its fates around for the better, and fans giving the game a second chance are extremely pleased with it thus far.
Starfieldmight be of great importance to Bethesda, but it is equally if not more important for Microsoft. Many plausible rumors and speculation has suggested a 2021 release for the game, which if true, could makeStarfieldthis year’s biggest Xbox exclusivealongside the delayed launch title,Halo Infinite. With these two titles being some of the earliest in Xbox’s next-gen offerings, these titles might dictate Xbox’s first-party offerings this console generation, implyingStarfieldneeds to meet a high standard of quality.
Bethesda’s Comfort Zone
Another big reason whyFallout 76failed to meet player expectationswas that Bethesda had no prior experience with live service titles. While a seemingly easy task to pull off for a team of such caliber, there is a multitude of small touches that can make or break a live-service game. This is what precisely happened withFallout 76, but Bethesda did put in the effort to release substantial updates and ultimately overhaul the game into something much better. That being said,Starfieldlikely won’t run into the same problemsFallout 76did at launch.
Starfieldhas been touted to be primarily a singleplayer experience, one mostly restrained to the action/adventure and role-playing generally associated as Bethesda’s strongest suit. While this isn’t to state thatStarfieldwould break sales records and probably be the year’s very best, it seems that fans have more reasons to remain optimistic for the game. There’s certainly a possibility thatStarfieldwill grace the stage at E3 this year, and hopefully, it meets as many of fans' expectations as possible.
