Starfield is a pretty big deal in the world of gaming. It's easily one of the most anticipated releases of 2023, having been pushed back a bit, but it also represents the first new IP from Bethesda in a very long time. Best known for The Elder Scrolls series, as well as the Fallout games since the company took over the franchise in 2008, many are looking forward to how the studio handles space exploration. While there's longer to wait now, one person is offering a sneak peek at the game's map.
As spotted by PC Gamer, GitHub user s9w, whose real name is Sebastian Wehausen, has managed to reverse engineer what's already known about Starfield and turn it into an executable file. Called the "Starfield Navigator," the download page says that, thanks to in-game footage that Bethesda released last month, they've been able to take the star map that was shown around the 13:30 minute mark and reconstruct the positioning of each celestial entity. As well as the trailer, they've also used the position of real-life star systems, including Sol, Alpha Centauri, and Porrima, to help with calibration.
What's most impressive about this is that, according to s9w, of the "over 100" stars that have been announced for the game, 75 of them were visible in the footage. As many are already aware, the Starfield trailer was revealed at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, which took place on June 12. It was the first time fans had been shown gameplay, with the footage demonstrating 15 minutes' worth of aspects from the upcoming sci-fi epic.
Initially intended to be released on November 11 of this year, which is the anniversary of Skyrim's launch, Bethesda had to delay Starfield and Redfall, both of which are now scheduled for release sometime next year. The reason for the pushback, according to the studio, is down to the team wishing to spend more time working on each title to make them as polished as possible. This could also be in response to the hugely negative reaction that CD Projekt Red received at the end of 2020 when Cyberpunk 2077 hit stores and people began reporting numerous issues with the game.
It's expected to be a busy next few years for Bethesda. With The Elder Scrolls 6 allegedly in pre-production and Fallout 5 being confirmed, fans are going to be waiting a very long time for new installments in the long-running franchises. But at least Starfield is on the way, though it's not entirely clear exactly when it will drop.
Starfield is scheduled to launch in 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.