With Starfield in the hands of media, creators, and those fortunate enough to get the game early by other means, there’s been one question looming over me for months – Is Starfield full of bugs?
In the past, we’ve all been accustomed to, and memed about the fact that Bethesda is known for its buggy games, but is Starfield going to break that cycle? Fortunately, I’ve been speaking to several people who have been playing the game for over a week now to get the answer.
Our first public comment about Starfield being a polished game came from journalist Tyler McVicker, who’s currently under an embargo for the title. Despite being under the embargo, McVicker took to Discord to say, “Also, 15 hours in and not a single bug”.
Taking one person’s comments at face value is never enough, so I reached out to my contacts to delve a little deeper.
Speaking with several sources under the condition of anonymity who are currently under embargo and couldn’t speak publically about the game, McVicker’s comment is the same sentiment given by everyone I’ve spoken to. Five individuals, who have a varying amount of time put in the game have all said that the amount of bugs they’ve experienced can be counted on one hand. In fact, most said one or two at most, with everyone I spoke to having put dozens of hours into the game. In addition, it was also said that almost all the bugs that were found have already been listed to be fixed in the Starfield Day 1 patch.
Admittingly though, even with speaking with five individuals, it’s still a small pool of opinions in the grand scheme of things. Public perception will always be different, but in my opinion, hearing the behind-the-scenes buzz and positivity of the game is a very strong encouraging sign. Whether or not public opinion will be different remains to be seen, but hey, I guess we’ll have to wait another 5 or so days.
In June, Microsoft Game Studios head Matt Booty took to a Giant Bomb stream to speak on Starfield bugs and said, “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 any Bethesda game ever shipped with.” It’s a bold statement, but from what we’ve been able to gather it seems entirely accurate. But let’s be clear – Starfield will have bugs. All games do. But a Bethesda game with as few bugs as possible sounds like a match made in heaven.
Starfield officially launches in early access on the Xbox Series X|S and PC on August 1 and launches on September 6.
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