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Xbox Showcase and Starfield Direct — June 11, 2023
The Xbox Showcase and Starfield Direct premiered on June 11th. Beyond the game trailers and announcements in the first hour for Xbox as a whole, the second hour was dedicated solely to Starfield. It featured a deep dive into gameplay, including lengthy segments spotlighting multiple game systems. Although many things were discussed, the particular segments included dedicated time for the main story, character creation, the skill system, ships, companions, flying in space, exploration, outpost construction, and combat. There was also time dedicated to custom physical items made for the game, such as a custom Xbox controller and headset, the Chronomark watch, and its case.
Perhaps one of the most surprising announcements was that the game would have an early access period for the Premium and Constellation editions of the game, with up to five days early access creating a soft release date of September 1, 2023, 82 days from the current date. The standard edition will still release on the previously announced date of September 6.
You can see an on demand version of the Starfield Direct here. You can also see an official announcement of the pre-purchase versions here.
Starfield Release Date Set to September 6, 2023 — March 8, 2023
Following an extended period with almost no news on Starfield, the new release date has finally been revealed to be September 6, 2023. Additionally, the previously announced Starfield Direct is going to be held on June 11, 2023, creating approximately a three month window between the game's primary show and its release. The announcement was made alongside a new trailer for the game, presenting numerous CGI shots mixed with scenes from Bethesda's offices.
You can see the official launch date trailer here. Our own article on the video will be up shortly.
Todd Howard Discusses Starfield in IGN Interview — June 14, 2022
Following off on the heels of the Official Gameplay Reveal, Todd Howard held an interview with IGN to discuss some of the burning questions the demonstration generated. This fifteen minute interview used its time well, and covered a lot of ground in that time. Here is a quick summary of some of the major answers:
- They expected people to be surprised by the comment about how many planets are present and explorable. Todd Howard said they might do a deep dive to explain it more.
- Todd Howard went over Bethesda's history with procedural generation and discussed how it is used to help create their worlds, using Skyrim's quests and landscape as an example. He also compared choosing to explore the procedural-generated portions of planets to Daggerfall's gameplay.
- The technical difference between having a single explorable planet and a thousand is minuscule once the systems for the first one are created.
- There is more handcrafted content in this game than any previous Bethesda game. For example, there is over 200,000 recorded voice lines.
- Ship combat will be more slow paced, and draws inspiration from Mech Warrior and FTL for their power management gameplay.
- You can act as a smuggler.
- You can visit star stations.
- You can disable, board, and steal enemy ships.
- Backgrounds are reminiscint to classes from previous games, and there are around twenty in total. As was demonstrated before, your background will have some unique dialogue related to it.
- Players will have a set starting point for all players, with a "step out" moment like previous games.
- New Atlantis is the biggest city in Starfield, as well as the largest Bethesda has ever built. Constellation also keeps their headquarters there.
- Besides exploration and answer the mysteries of the universe, Constellation also deals with recovering "Old Earth artifacts".
- Todd described the main story being about 20% than previous games, although said it was still not fully set in stone. To explain further, he said that if the normal length of time for completing the main quest in their previous games was 25 hours, Starfield would be about 30 hours or possibly 40 hours. This did not include faction and side quest lines.
- He expects modders will be very pleased with the possibilities of the game.
- You cannot fly directly to the surface to a planet's surface. Gameplay is divided between ground and space segments, as the amount of work needed to do a seamless transition between the two was seen as a waste of available resources.
- As expected, Fallout 5 will be the game they work on after The Elder Scrolls VI.
You can see IGN's video here, and you can see their own summary of major points here.
Starfield Gameplay Reveal — June 12, 2022
The Xbox and Bethesda Showcase started and ended with upcoming Bethesda games. Redfall opened the show, and a fifteen minute presentation on Starfield ended it. The Starfield presentation provided a plethora of information on the game, including basic story information, a preview of the major factions, foot and ship combat, crafting, outposts, and the size of the game.
You can see our article documenting the event here, and you can watch the gameplay reveal yourself over here. The official article on the event can be seen here.
Starfield Delayed — May 12, 2022
Bethesda has announced today via Twitter that Starfield has been delayed until the first half of 2023. Originally slated for release on November 11, 2022, the game's release date has been pushed out to allow for more development time.
Into the Starfield - The Sound of Adventure Released — April 26, 2022
The third numbered documentary video in the Into the Starfield series was The Sound of Adventure. In a departure from the previous entries and introduction video, this video focuses on sound design.
You can find the video here. We also have an article covering this video.
Into the Starfield - Made for Wanderers Released — March 16, 2022
The second numbered documentary video in the Into the Starfield series was Made for Wanderers. The video continued to discuss Bethesda's approach to their games, while also breaking into more direct conversation about the game itself. Various factions were discussed, such as the United Colonies, Ryujin Industries, Freestar Collective, and the Crimson Fleet.
This video can be view on Bethesda's YouTube Channel. You can also see our own article here.
Painting a Journey Through Space Video Released With Giveaway — February 19, 2022
The Official Bethesda YouTube Account has released a new Starfield video in the buildup to the game's release later this year. The video depicts the artist Mike Butkus creating the "Journey Through Space" piece that has previously been seen in a few of the early promotional materials. Besides the video, Bethesda also announced a contest to win a print of the featured artwork. By "joining Constellation", signing up for the official Starfield newsletter before March 31st, you will be entered for a chance to win a print signed by Mike Butkus and Game Director Todd Howard. If you had signed up previously, you are automatically entered into the contest without needing to do anything else.
The official announcement of this video and contest can be seen here, and the video can be viewed here.
Into the Starfield - The Endless Pursuit Released — November 30, 2021
The next documentary video on the Starfield was Into the Starfield - The Endless Pursuit. The video goes into length discussing Bethesda's philosophy towards their games.
This video can be view on Bethesda's YouTube Channel. We also have an article on this topic.
Bethesda Releases Multiple Videos Introducing Major Locations — August 27, 2021
Continuing the effort to provide more information on the game, Bethesda released three videos on major locations in Starfield. The videos covered Akila City, Neon, and New Atlantis, three of the four major cities in the game.
You can see these videos here, here, and here. We also have our own articles on the Location Insights series of videos.
Edit: A similar video was released on October 22nd, although it was not officially labeled as a Location Insight video. This video served as an introduction into the wider setting of The Settled Systems.
Bethesda Begins Video Series on Starfield — June 14, 2021
Instead of returning to the previous silence on the game, Bethesda followed up their teaser trailer with a short introductory documentary piece on the ongoing development of Starfield the day after. The video features narration from Todd Howard on Bethesda's past and their desire to create a game like this, and how the opportunity to create Starfield only recently arose with new technology.
You can see the video here. Our own article can be found here.
Following up on years of almost total radio silence on the game, Bethesda has released a teaser trailer for Starfield during their 2021 E3 Showcase. The teaser claims to be alpha gameplay in the Creation Engine 2. The two minute video gave a walkthrough of the Constellation Starship Frontier preparing to launch. The trailer would introduce many basic details about Starfield, such as the Constellation organization, the Frontier, Vasco, and basic details about the story to investigate a recent discovery.
You can see the video here, and you can see our article on it here.
Starfield Officially Announced — June 10, 2018
After many years of speculation, Bethesda officially announced Starfield on June 10th, 2018. The game was revealed with a very short Announcement Teaser Trailer.
Bethesda has a long history with sci-fi games set in space. One early attempt was a failed attempt to created a game based on Traveller that eventually released as Delta V. Another early effort was a space combat game called The 10th Planet, which was cancelled before its release. Bethesda would have the rights to create games for the Star Trek franchise for a time, during which they published Star Trek: Legacy, Star Trek: Encounters, Star Trek: Tactical Assault, and Star Trek: Conquest. Todd Howard claimed that he pitched a Star Trek RPG during this time, but it was ultimately turned down. The idea for Starfield spent several years coalescing before ZeniMax moved to trademark it in 2013.
You can see the official video here, and you can see our article on it here.
Starfield Trademarked — March 22, 2013
ZeniMax filed for a trademark for Starfield on March 22nd, 2013. The trademark covered "Computer game software for use with computers and video game consoles; downloadable computer game software offered via the Internet and wireless devices; computer game software for use with on-line interactive games, clothing, namely, T-shirts, shirts, sweatshirts, pants, jackets, fleece pullovers; headwear, namely, hats; footwear, namely shoes and sneakers, and computer and video game user instruction manuals; magazines, books, and pamphlets concerning video games; computer and video game strategy guide books and magazines; trading cards, maps, posters, advertisement boards of paper or cardboard, art prints". This suggested that they were going to work on creating a game or franchise called Starfield in the near future.
The official announcement would come more than five years later on June 10th, 2018. You can see these initial trademarks here, here, and here.
Did You Know
- ... that Starfield was originally trademarked on March 22, 2013?
- ... that Starfield will feature over 1,000 planets situated in over 100 different star systems?
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Concept Art provides references for how the finished game should look. A few pieces of concept art have also been released to help advertise the game. (more...)
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