COVID-19 has had a low impact on small developers, many of whom were already working remotely. Big-budget studios with offices, hundreds of workers, and huge media assets have had to scramble to reorganize, and even still have found that they can't maintain the pace they're used to. Games like Gotham Knights and Gran Turismo 7 have already been pushed to 2022 or Starfieldgalaxy.Com beyond, and it's likely that more 2021 game delays will follow . Bethesda is likely eager to avoid rushing Starfield considering the initial disasters of games like Cyberpunk 2077 and its own Fallout 76 , and agreeing players likely aren't worried about the game hitting a presumed release window if it means it will be high-qual

Despite the increased amount of Starfield -related leaks, the game continues to remain a mystery. This disappointing situation, however, might change quite soon as Microsoft is reportedly planning to hold a Bethesda-related gaming event somewhere in the middle of March. It could be an excellent opportunity to reveal some enticing information about Bethesda’s future and its upcoming projects - including, of course, Starfield . The event is yet to be officially confirmed as it is just another insider statement at the mom

That made the potential Starfield screenshot leak this fall even more exciting, as it represented the first look at an otherwise mysterious project from one of the biggest game developers around. While their validity was called into question at the time, it now seems more likely that they were legitimate. That’s thanks to Bethesda managing director Ashley Cheng, who recently appeared in a montage from Develop:Brighton, where Todd Howard was accepting a Develop:Star Award. As spotted by Reddit user Rynderend , Cheng is seen wearing a Starfield shirt with a logo on the sleeve identical to the one shown on the character’s spacesuit in the leaked Starfield screenshot. The matching logos lend credence to the screenshot being real, as it would be quite the coincidence if Bethesda just happened to pick the same design for its Starfield merchand

The damages of the COVID-19 pandemic could affect the industry for years, an anonymous publisher told Fanbyte 's Imran Khan , who retweeted his reporting on April 8 in relation to Bethesda's Deathloop being delayed to September 14. " The truth is, players aren’t going to get every video game we - we, as in every developer - want to put out this year ," the designer of an unspecified game was quoted as saying. " That sucks, but it’s the truth. We don’t want to put out a mess, we want to put out the best games we can, and we’re moving at three-quarters speed on average days and way less on bad days. " Twitter news sleuth IdleSloth84 claims that this is may be in reference to Starfield , but no official confirmation of a "delay" for the game with no confirmed release date has been provided at publication t

This is pretty low stakes as far as leaks go, as the initial screenshots didn’t give much about Starfield away. They did confirm a new visual direction for the game - which is in line with the fact that Bethesda is debuting a brand new engine for Starfield - but didn’t offer any clues as to how the game will actually play. There’s also the chance that the screenshots were from early enough in development that they hardly resemble the game at this point, but it now seems that they offer at least a snapshot of the game’s developm

"Would it have been better if it was some years from now and we just go, 'Surprise, we're making a game called Starfield , and it's out X months later?' Yeah. For sure," said Hines. "But at the same time, there is also value in every day between there people aren't freaking out about us making Fallout 76 as an online-only game as a service and this is all they're ever maki

Microsoft has been noticeably collaborative with both Sony and Nintendo when it comes to cross-platform titles and enabling cross-play between bigger games. Realistically, Bethesda games already in production like Starfield or The Elder Scrolls VI will probably see some sort of timed exclusivity, but titles further down the timeline may incorporate more features for Microsoft's hardware and/or come with Xbox Game Pass support on lau

Microsoft can't really publicly comment on these matters in too much detail until the purchase is finalized. Since the transaction was announced, the only news available about Bethesda 's future on other consoles (particularly the PlayStation 4 and 5) has been that Microsoft will honor preexisting agreements for games like Deathloop and that service-based games The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 will continue to be suppor

Even though there's still plenty to learn about Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI , Bethesda has plenty of time to divulge that information. Hopefully, the coming months are years start to shed more light on each project and their potential arrival da

There's no sign the quoted sources are involved with Starfield , or even Bethesda, but Khan's evaluation of the pandemic on its own is likely enough to some to quash a recent rumor that Starfield could ship this year. That was itself a misinterpretation by Venture Beat , which claimed it was " probably 90% " sure the game would show at E3 2021 . A statement about it possibly shipping in November was later corrected as speculat