The disastrous launch of Redfall has Starfield fans concerned that the highly-anticipated Bethesda title will meet the same fate, but recent comments by Phil Spencer offer a more reassuring reality. While Arkane Studios has established a strong reputation over the years, known for developing critically-acclaimed titles such as Prey and the Dishonored games, the reception to Redfall has been less than stellar. Poor gunplay, cheap cutscenes, dumb AI, an uninspired art direction – players have been vocal about their grievances with the game, which extend well past its technical issues, as Redfall continues to be review bombed on Steam.
As Bethesda remains conservative with its marketing for Starfield, there's a growing concern in the community that the game's launch may resemble Fallout 76 more than Skyrim. The pressure on Starfield following Redfall's launch isn't necessarily real or even warranted from Bethesda's perspective, but public perception has certainly made it a topic prominent enough that the CEO of Xbox Phil Spencer chose to address it during an episode of Kinda Funny's Xcast.
When the topic of Redfall's mixed reviews came up, Spencer stated that there was nothing more difficult for him than disappointing the Xbox community. He went on to say that while he preferred for the developers to step out of their comfort zone (citing Obsidian's Grounded as an example), the attempt by Arkane to create an online co-op experience did not meet the standard fans have come to expect. In hindsight, Spencer feels that Microsoft should have stepped in earlier during Redfall's development to help Arkane meet its internal goals, a mistake that he claims hasn't been repeated with Bethesda's Starfield.
Unlike Redfall, Starfield was still in an earlier stage of development when Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda occurred, and Microsoft has had close and regular communications with Todd Howard and his team on Starfield's progress, scope, and overall vision. Though Spencer laments that Xbox didn't do a good job in communicating with Arkane Austin, it's ultimately an issue that will not follow Starfield as it eyes its release date of September 6.
It's no secret that Starfield is an ambitious project for Bethesda Game Studios, as it represents the next step in the company's specific brand of sandbox role-playing games such as Skyrim or Fallout 4. Starfield's features such as procedurally generated planets, ship customization, and an improved system for factions are but a few examples of how Bethesda plans to push the envelope further. Phil Spencer's recent comments paint a picture of Starfield being regularly offered help and guidance by Microsoft. Whether it succeeds or fails, it will do so by its own merit rather than being part of an emerging pattern that began with Redfall.
Starfield will be released on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.