Starfield spent over eight years in development, being delayed multiple times before Bethesda was ready to release it on the market. However, these delays shaped the game into a complete product, helping it reach 10 million players within a month.
Due to the game’s sheer scope and size, a common concern for Starfield was that the overall experience would be bogged down by numerous bugs across the 1000 planets in the game.
However, Starfield launched with an impressively low number of bugs, becoming Bethesda’s most polished release to date. This was made possible by extensive QA testing, as Todd Howard reveals Bethesda spent one-year testing for bugs.
Why it matters: In the past, Bethesda earned a reputation for launching games with bugs and improving them through updates. However, this was not the case with Starfield.
During a recent interview with Ted Price from Insomniac Games, Todd Howard elaborated on the bug testing process for Starfield. He revealed that Starfield was basically finished by the end of 2022, and Bethesda then focused on bug fixes.
Members of the studio were able to test the game on their home Xbox consoles, rigorously checking each nook and cranny to ensure Starfield delivered a smooth experience by its launch in 2023. Todd Howard said:
“We tested the game all year. Playing it all the time, tweaking it and fixing it.”
This led to a long journey of improving Starfield, ensuring it would launch in the best state possible.
Bethesda’s efforts appear to have paid off since Starfield has not seen much criticism for its bugs. However, this focus may have led to the studio neglecting parts of the game, like its optimization on PC.
Such issues have led to Starfield becoming Bethesda’s worst-rated release by Steam user reviews, but the critical reception has been a vast improvement over Fallout 76.
Nonetheless, bugs are far from a major issue for the game.
The developer will continue to support its latest release, bringing new content to the game and mod support in 2024. PC users can also expect DLSS support next year, further highlighting Bethesda’s commitment to improving the RPG experience.
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