After several delays, Bethesda’s space ARPG, Starfield, is nearing release five years after the game’s official announcement. With the highly anticipated title being one of the first major Xbox exclusives following Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, it may not be clear to some if Starfield will release directly on Xbox Game Pass like other first-party titles before it.
The 45-minute-long Starfield Direct event gave its audience the best look yet at Bethesda’s space epic with information about its world, gameplay elements, story, and how the game follows a major conflict: The Colony War. Everything shown suggests that it may be the developer’s most ambitious RPG yet, combining features from Bethesda’s classic RPG series such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout with elements from other sci-fi titles such as the branching storytelling of Mass Effect and vast space exploration akin to No Man’s Sky.
Xbox Game Pass Core will replace Xbox Live Gold and will grant its subscribers access to several acclaimed titles from major franchises such as DOOM Eternal, Dishonored 2, Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, and more. While this is significantly more than the previous Games With Gold deal, which only offered a handful of titles each month and reduced its offerings in recent months, it is a fraction of the amount of titles available in the main Xbox and PC Game Pass tiers, and unfortunately, it doesn’t give players day-one access to games as they do.
Those who pre-order Starfield in either its Premium or Constellation Editions are eligible for early access to the game. This early access allows players to play the base game on September 1, five days ahead of Starfield’s main September 6 release date. For Game Pass subscribers who may have already pre-loaded the game can still get early access if they are willing to pay an extra fee. They will need to purchase the $34.99 Digital Premium Upgrade to get an early-access code along with the Constellation Skins and the Shattered Space DLC.
Starfield appears to have the studio’s biggest map yet, spanning a massive portion of the galaxy with approximately one thousand planets to explore. As a result, the title looks set to be one of the biggest games of 2023, and its arrival on Xbox and PC Game Pass at launch is a huge win for Microsoft’s subscribers. Starfield became available to pre-load as of August 17 on Xbox, meaning that players can install the game now and jump straight into exploring The Settled Systems in the fully buildable ship, The Frontier, on September 6.
2023-08-22 21:48:03
Original from screenrant.com
rnrn