While a good chunk of Xbox's recent Developer Direct showcase focused on Redfall, Bethesda's other major 2023 game, Starfield, was unfortunately absent. While the game's release date is still a mystery, we have recently learned that the game is indeed complete, in the sense that it can be played from start to finish.
Multiple development sources recently told Windows Central that Starfield is playable in full, from the game's opening all the way to the end credits. At this point, the developers are primarily focused on polishing and bug fixing and a release date has not yet been set in stone.
Starfield does continue to use Bethesda's Creation Engine, and the game does have a number of complicated mechanics within it. Everything from space travel, shipbuilding and procedurally generated planets to populate the universe, to branching narratives and more.
Due to these overlapping systems, there is huge potential for bugs to appear across many areas of the game. It seems that Bethesda is hoping to polish up Starfield to avoid some of issues observed at launch for past titles, like Fallout 4 and Skyrim.
The last official update from Xbox claimed that Starfield would launch in the first half of this year. However, recent rumours have claimed that the game will be pushed back to later in the year. We should get more official news on Starfield's development soon.
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KitGuru Says: We typically don't get a lot of huge single-player games launching in time for the Summer, so I'm sure Microsoft is hoping to lock that period down with Starfield. Still, if the game needs more time to squash bugs, then a delay may be necessary to avoid backlash.