Bethesda Game Studios has revealed that Starfield’s most sizeable update since it was released in September 2023 is set to hit Steam Beta on January 17. That’ll kick off a testing period, with the update being released globally two weeks later, once the beta testers have validated that there is nothing wrong with the update.
It was claimed by Bethesda that ‘over 100 fixes and improvements’ are coming as part of the update to the game that is fast falling out of memory. There are high expectations that BGS will reveal something related to Starfield during the Xbox Developer Direct showcase that’s airing on January 18 – there are still no signs of Shattered Space, the game’s first expansion.
Coming Down Fast
In a thread posted to Twitter, Bethesda Game Studios revealed what’s coming as part of the biggest Starfield update ever from January 17, including:
- Fixes for bugs in quests (Eye of the Storm, for instance)
- Improved textures, lighting, and shadows (particularly on character models)
- Additional widescreen support
- ‘Sun disk geometry’
- Addressing the ‘pet asteroid’ bug
- Planet ring shadows
It was stressed that a ‘multitude’ of fixes are on the way, but it certainly seems as though this update is more of a quality-of-life sweep than it is anything substantial or meaty. There isn’t anything ‘new’ really being added to the game, which has seen a sharp drop-off in player count since being released on September 6, 2023.
Are you still playing Starfield?
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Wow, 6 months later and I might finally get to complete some quests that have been broken since launch.
I understand it can be difficult to find fixes but when one of those bugs is just a door that won’t open, maybe they could have removed the door, or moved the npc from behind it rather than having players wait around for several months until the quest is playable again and Bethesda find the time to actually look at it properly.
Heart of Mars for example, was just a quest item bugged under the world map which couldn’t be collected. Instead of moving the quest item to a reachable location as a temporary fix, players had to wait around or skip the quest entirely for 2-3 months while Bethesda twiddled their thumbs.
I’m a big fan of Bethesda, and it’s not unusual to encounter bugs in their games, but this time I’ve encountered so many minor bugs that could have simple fixes, and rather than making the issues playable for the time being, they havnt bothered doing anything unless it’s permanent.
Of course people have stopped playing. They couldn’t even get me through my first playthrough nevermind 10 new game + runs aswell.
I am not playing Starfield any longer. And picked up the $100 version to play it early. Not sure what it is, but the game bores me to sleep. Thought maybe I was just tired of this type of game, but no. I jumped into a new character in Skyrim and am enjoying my time with that game. I didn’t even play Starfield long enough to encounter most of the bugs, less than 30 hours. Maybe I’ll give it a go again some day, maybe not… Lol