Rumour: Starfield Will Be An Xbox Exclusive, Could Release This Holiday

Full Xbox exclusive means console exclusive or Xbox and PC?

Also, Ryse 2 is in development. Rumored to be multi-plat.

@FraserG
There'll be riot if a Bethesda RPG skips PC release.

I have high hopes for this game. May be naive but I still believe Bethesda can make best open world games but it may be due to the fact I skipped their Fallout games since I am not interested in post apo climate. Elder Scrolls is my favourite franchise but space games are enticing to me as well.

@The_New_Butler I think so as well Xbox means platform, not hardware in line with new Microsoft marketing.

@Lajt Both, Xbox is the platform

Interesting, has to be something at E3 then. I’ll enjoy the reaction from PlayStation websites when this is announced as exclusive, since Sony literally tried to do the same thing.

Here's hoping it turns out well. Also, I never hate any console manufacturer for having exclusives. It's the best way to get people into your ecosystem, and MS needs to do that a little more with Xbox.

@Lajt Xbox exclusive basically means Xbox and PC now. They’re one and the same

‘Trying their hardest to get the game ready...’ does not mean it’s overly buggy or they’re doing crunch necessarily. It could just mean they’re throwing extra resource in for the testing phase and trying to shorten that time period to beat the Xmas deadline.

@Jacko11
Well, Game Pass exclusive as Phil Spencer calls it these days.
Exclusive to any device that supports the service.

@somnambulance yeah there’s plenty of examples of games that should not have been released in the state their were. Fingers crossed on this one ☝️

@AJM59 Well if Starfield is coming out this holiday, and is an xbox platform exclusive, that would make it the biggest Xbox title in a long time, and a big Bethesda RPG, which we've not really seen since FO4.

Having Starfield launch, in a complete working state, to huge fanfare and during a time when Sony is getting pummelled for their PR handling, and only have Returnal to counter, would be a very big deal for the platform.

And that's even if 90% of sales go to PC.

So what exactly is this game? Is it an Rpg like fallout but in space? Do I get to explore planets etc as my character or do you always stay in your spaceship etc

One does have to reserve judgement of this game seeing as well, we haven't seen anything with it. Definitely on the radar though.

I as well as others do raise an eyebrow to trying to 'rush' the game for holiday, I think Microsoft does need to be careful here. I mean beyond having a Cyberpunk fiasco, you don't want to start tainting GamePass with rushed and unfinished exclusives, as you'll start tainting not the developers, but the GamePass brand.

.. and you know Microsoft doesn't want to start doing that.

I can taste that salt of ponies tears right now. I'm not usually one to be console war related I blame True Assassin you know who you're. Lol
All jokes and quips aside. This could be big. Let's see shall we.

Anyone have any clue what this game actually is? I see all this hype but is it just cuz it's a Bethesda RPG or am I missing some details about the game? Also xbox exclusive is Xbox/PC and likely xcloud as xcloud is a big entry point in the Asian markets. Sony wanted to buy exclusivity rights so I don't expect to see this on PlayStation at all, reap what you sow and all

@Richnj totally agree, it would be huge if it did come out this holiday and as an exclusive. Having said that I know pretty much nothing about it but am still really looking forward to it 😆

@Olliemar28 I personally think that Microsoft will receive a lot of positive press if they release the games so close to each other. If you factor in the rumour that Forza Horizon 5 is also releasing this year, imagine then how positive the media will paint Xbox and Game Pass in general. One week you get Forza, the next you get Halo Infinite and in the third week you get the next massive Bethesda RPG, i.e. Starfield. If Microsoft plans this well, this could be the massive push the company needs in order to improve the image of their brand, i.e. that "Xbox has no games". With so many games releasing so close to each other, there will be "too many games to play". Not to mention that it technically doesn't matter in terms of Game Pass when the games are released since these are first-party titles and so they will never be removed from the service. You can play them whenever you want.

Maybe this is just some naive thinking from my side considering you're technically right about releasing games at regular intervals. It would be interesting nonetheless to see what happens if this strategy were applied!

@Fenbops they'll probably say "good, we don't want that bug riddle Bethesda game" all the while crying into a bowl of cheetos

At this point being exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem — that is Xbox consoles, PC, and wherever xCloud can be played — seems reasonable and most likely. I'm looking forward to playing it, but I hope Bethesda isn't being rushed on development to get out an exclusive for Xbox.

@SegataSanshiro Haha exactly! No but seriously, considering how many studios Microsoft owns now and that they're planning on acquiring more, I can just imagine how their schedule of releases each year is going to look like from here on out because they need to continuously add titles on Game Pass. We could be looking at a major first-party title every other month on average.

But yeah, the second half of 2021 is definitely going to be crazy busy for Microsoft. Halo, Starfield and Forza, not to mention Psychonauts 2 that's coming later this year as well!

@SegataSanshiro That would be really cool. Considering that most of the Rare IPs are dormant, Microsoft would be wise to outsource them to other companies like they did with Battletoads. I can definitely see more of that happening thanks to the existence of Game Pass and Microsoft wanting to add as many games as they can to the service.

Bethesda's bug squishing operation hard at work:

Only the deluded PlayStation fans actually believed Microsoft would still release all these new games on PS5

So it's not going to PC either?

@NEStalgia For a split second I thought that was Morgan Yu.

If true it seems Microsoft's learnt nothing from the Cyberpunk mess. If you need to delay it for a better quality game then delay it.

Multiple situations of the scale of the Cyberpunk mess would do more damage to the Xbox brand than having nothing 1st party releasing in the near future.

Another one I'm looking forward to, also will be excellent as it's free on Game Pass.

@Grumblevolcano
I would say they are people who knew this prior to cyberpunk. Remember they delayed Halo infinite after marketing it for there big console release title.
Them not announcing a release date or mentioning suggests that they are waiting closer to e3 to see if it is possible to be out this fall.

Also everyone mentioning crunch you maybe right. But also it may justmean putting internal groups behind to help speed it along.

@LtSarge Not naive thinking. Some on here do oversell it slightly but thinking about it.

The Xbox One first party output late in its cycle was relatively low particularly during the year before next gen dropped.

Those devs have been busy beavering away on next gen titles. Not without possibility some of them could drop this year in quick succession.

First party will increase on Xbox exponentially over the next couple of years and I also like you think a few could drop close together this winter.

@The_New_Butler 100% xbox exclusive. That means xbox only

@The_New_Butler No gamepass doesn't mean xbox and even if it does, he said xbox and not gamepass. Xbox and PC GP has even different offer of games so let's separate it. They are and they always were different platforms