Starfield is coming in September

For a game that was originally supposed to release last year, we haven't seen a whole lot of space RPG Starfield. The best look we have is an edited 15-minute gameplay trailer from last year. But now, following a delay out of 2022, we finally have the official launch date: September 6.

"We have poured ourselves into this game, and even I'm surprised at how much we can pour. It is large," Bethesda's Todd Howard said in the announcement video. "We're playing the game all the time—shout-out over here to lead producer Tim Lamb—old-school fans, you may remember him from a 'making of' Oblivion video, where he's sitting on a similar sofa, doing similar things."

The new date is a bit of a delay, as Starfield was previously expected to be out in the first half of 2023. What we'll get instead in that time frame is a Starfield Direct presentation, which Howard said will deliver a "deep dive in the game," on June 11.

"There's so much that we still have to show you," he said. "The game has many of the hallmarks you'd expect from us, but it's also a very unique experience."

It's a little more of a wait that we expected, but what's another few months at this point? Starfield was first teased around five years ago, and "active development" started all the way back when Fallout 4 released in 2015, according to a 2018 interview. (At this rate, I figure we'll be playing The Elder Scrolls 6 sometime around 2031.)

Bethesda was reportedly one of the Microsoft subsidiaries affected by the 10,000 layoffs the corporation announced earlier this year, though we haven't heard any details on the extent of that affect.

Recently, I looked back over the Starfield interviews and developer chats from the past few years to extract some of the details about the game I find most interesting—like that you can have parents, and visit them—and Chris examined some convincing fan theories about the main quest.

Image

<a href="/starfield-factions/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Starfield factions: Find a cause to quest for
<a href="/starfield-cities-locations/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Starfield cities: See the big spaces in space
<a href="/starfield-companions-list/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Starfield companions: Collect cosmic comrades
<a href="/starfield-trait-list/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Starfield traits: Give your hero some history
<a href="/starfield-ship-customization-stats/" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"" data-link-merchant="pcgamer.com"">Starfield ship customization: Make your spaceship special

Tyler Wilde
Executive Editor

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

With contributions from