Starfield was officially released on Xbox and PC, becoming Bethesda’s first exclusive game for Microsoft consoles. Although executives like Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer have distanced themselves from the idea of limiting content to one platform, Todd Howard, the top boss of Bethesda Game Studios, thinks otherwise.
In an interview with BBCHoward talked about the advantages of that Starfield does not release on PlayStation simultaneously. The game director mentioned that when you do something exclusive to one platform, you can focus more.
“You know this is the hardware or what people are playing with, so the ability to focus on that always makes for a better productTodd Howard said. “Of course you want people to be able to access it. But being with Xbox means that there is an ease of access for us.” The manager stated that they expect more people for this launch than any other game they have done before.
About the latter, Starfield broke some records prior to its release. The Bethesda game had five days of early access for those who purchased the version premiumand during its first 24 hours it reached a peak of 234,502 concurrent players on Steam. The space RPG opens today to all Game Pass subscribers, including those who don’t have an Xbox to play it.
Todd Howard’s statements about exclusive games are not far from reality. Focusing on one platform implies allocate all studio resources to take advantage of the hardware and deliver a good product. Starfield delivered and has become the first Bethesda game to launch with a stable frame rate on consoles as well as a reduced frame count. bugs.
Starfield could be exclusive to PlayStation
The first trailer for Starfield debuted during the Bethesda presentation at E3 2018 and was a trigger for Microsoft to buy ZeniMax. During a deposition at the FTC trial, Phil Spencer revealed that Microsoft made the decision after learning that Starfield could be exclusive to PlayStation, as happened with deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo.
“We heard that Starfield would potentially end up skipping Xbox as well. We can’t be in a position as a third-party console where we fall further behind in our content ownership, so we’ve had to secure content to remain viable in the business,” said the head of Microsoft Gaming.
It is almost a fact that, initially, Bethesda was planning a multiplatform releaseas you did before with fallout 4 either The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The idea of making it exclusive came after the purchase, when Microsoft indicated that they would focus only on Xbox, PC and Game Pass. Something similar happened with redfallthe Arkane Studios game that was intended to reach Sony consoles.
The advantages of focusing on one platform
Pete Hines, head of Bethesda Softworks, agrees with his colleague. In an interview with Comic bookHines mentioned that exclusive games are a great benefit for the development teamsince there are fewer errors to correct.
“The fewer platforms they (QA testers) have, the more rounds of testing they can do; if you have 100 people testing two platforms, you can put 50 on each. If you have three, the math tells you that you have fewer people on those. games. You’re running into fewer problems, you’re not going as fast. It’s going to take more time and cost more,” Hines said.
The reason why Starfield has launched with less bugs than other bethesda games it’s because the QA team only focused on Xbox and PC. “As someone who has played a lot and sees all this to do, I have no doubt that being able to focus on fewer platforms or hardware has been a great benefit for the team,” said the manager.
On the same line, the producer of final fantasy 16Naoki Yoshida, expressed a few weeks ago that wished there was only one platform. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I wish there was only one. It would be better for both developers and players,” he mentioned in an interview with the YouTube channel Muyao4.