Highlights
- Starfield became the fastest-selling title in Bethesda's history, but user reviews have since cooled, potentially affecting its chances in the Game of the Year race.
- 2023 has been an incredible year for gaming, with a packed release schedule of highly-anticipated games, making it challenging for Starfield to stand out.
- Starfield's reliance on familiar mechanics and its failure to bring significant innovation have been criticized by fans, impacting its reception and potential awards recognition.
Just over five years since the title's reveal and initial trailer at E3 2018, this September saw the long-awaited release of Bethesda's Starfield. As one would expect, the title quickly shot to the top of Steam and Xbox sales charts, becoming the fastest-selling title in Bethesda's history. Despite a mostly sterling critical reception, however, user reviews of the title have since cooled, bringing into question how Starfield might fare in the upcoming Game of the Year race in what has been potentially the most-packed release year in history. Unfortunately, it would appear that Starfield is yet another victim of 2023's absolutely stacked release schedule.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw the delay of several noteworthy titles months or even years past their planned release dates, and as the industry has continued to catch up, gamers are continually presented with a veritable onslaught of games.
Now that the cadence of game releases is perpetually providing players with a new quality game nearly every week, it has led to 2023 being one of the best years in gaming based on sales data alone. The sheer number of incredible games that 2023 brought to players is astounding, and in a year with a new Zelda game, a new Final Fantasy, and sequels fans have waited more than a decade for, Starfield becomes a cautionary tale about release timing and reliance on familiarity.
How Starfield Stacks Up Against The Competition
The first obstacle standing in the way of Starfield's Game of the Year candidacy is the sheer number of incredible games that are its direct competition for this year's top honors. Dating all the way back to January and even up through December, there are no less than 2 games releasing almost every month that are surefire Game of the Year contenders, as well as several others that will surely get nominated for other various categories. To see how Starfield might fare when placed side-by-side with the likes of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or Baldur's Gate 3, one useful metric is each game's critic and user aggregate score, as well as their Steam scores if applicable.
Game | Release Month | Metacritic Score (Critic) | Metacritic Score (User) | Steam Rating (If Applicable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
January | 89% | 88% | "Very Positive" 91% | |
Hogwarts Legacy | February | 84% | 85% | "Very Positive" 91% |
Octopath Traveler 2 | February | 84% | 87% | "Overwhelmingly Positive" 95% |
Resident Evil 4 (Remake) | March | 93% | 79% | "Overwhelmingly Positive" 97% |
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor | April | 85% | 64% | "Mixed" 64% |
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | May | 96% | 83% | N/A |
Street Fighter 6 | June | 92% | 70% | "Very Positive" 88% |
Diablo 4 | June | 86% | 21% | "Mixed" 58% |
June | 87% | 81% | N/A | |
Pikmin 4 | July | 87% | 90% | N/A |
Remnant 2 | July | 80% | 69% | "Very Positive" 83% |
Baldur's Gate 3 | August | 96% | 89% | "Overwhelmingly Positive" 96% |
Armored Core 6 | August | 86% | 80% | "Very Positive" 89% |
August | 88% | 80% | "Very Positive" 87% | |
Starfield | September | 83% | 70% | "Mostly Positive" 70% |
Lies of P | September | 80% | 82% | "Very Positive" 92% |
Mortal Kombat 1 | September | 83% | 74% | "Mostly Positive" 74% |
October | 90% | 91% | N/A | |
Super Mario Bros. Wonder | October | 92% | 91% | N/A |
Alan Wake 2 | October | 89% | 88% | N/A (Epic Games Store exclusive) |
Starfield's Reception From Fans and Reliance on Familiar Mechanics Rule it Out
One of the most pertinent criticisms lobbied at Starfield in the wake of its release and reception from fans was its reliance on mechanics that Bethesda has been using in its games for more than a decade. The promise of Fallout 3 or Skyrim in space was appealing to fans around the time of the game's announcement, but the intervening years (and, truthfully, the early months of 2023 leading up to Starfield's release) cemented that a game could not attempt to stand out in 2023 by relying too heavily on what players had come to enjoy before. Starfield does introduce some new tricks to the playbook, but not nearly in the same seismic way that Tears of the Kingdom or Baldur's Gate 3 redefine their respective genres going forward.
Beyond its leaning too heavily on what might have worked in the past, fan reception of Starfield has undeniably shifted in the wake of its release. As players spend more and more time and find their continued engagement with Starfield to be less rewarding than other games, it continues to move the needle in terms of what nominees players might see at the 2023 Game Awards. Starfield is absolutely a quality release, but in a year like 2023 simply being "good" isn't enough to win the year's top honors.
Starfield
Developed by Bethesda Game Studios, Starfield is a sci-fi action role-playing game where players interact with multiple factions, engage in combat, customize their main character and ship, as well as explore a universe that features over 100 systems and 1,000 planets.
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- September 6, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Violence
- How Long To Beat
- 20 Hours
- X|S Enhanced
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 101 GB (September 2023)
- Metascore
- 86
