Microsoft is betting heavily behind this release on the success of this game, which is available on its Xbox Series console and on PC.
The role-playing game set in a science fiction universe was developed by the Bethesda studio, which the American giant acquired in 2020 as part of a total investment of around $ 7.5 billion in order to compete with the Japanese Sony PlayStation.
But Microsoft doesn’t want to stop there and is negotiating the purchase of another major studio, Activision Blizzard, which particularly has Call of Duty in its catalog, for $75 billion.
The expectations surrounding Starfield have increased again after the good reviews from the trade press. An average score of 88/100 was posted on the aggregator Metacritic on Tuesday.
Reviews recall cult sagas such as Star Trek, Star Wars and Blade Runner and emphasize that the game has an epic dimension, with an interesting story and a successful combat system.
“Interactive Films”
These features make these games real “interactive films,” emphasizes Simon Little, the head of Video Games Europe, an organization that brings together European developers.
Other recent games go in the same direction, such as Hogwarts Legacy, developed by the teams at Avalanche Software, owned by producer Warner Bros., which delves into the world of Harry Potter, and Baldur’s Gate 3, a role-playing game from Larian Studios. The latter achieved a score of 96/100 on Metacritic in its PC version. The PlayStation 5 adaptation launches on Wednesday, the same day as Starfield.
In addition to purchasing Starfield individually for around 70 euros (102 CAD), access is also possible via Game Pass, Microsoft’s online game library, whose subscription starts at 9.99 euros (14.60 CAD) per month.
With this distribution method, the American group hopes to benefit from recurring revenue by encouraging players to remain subscribers thanks to updates or the launch of new productions.
“Arouse curiosity”
“Unlike a book or a film, which is written, finished and nothing else, a video game is actually never quite finished,” explains Simon Little. “It is always being reinforced, modified, expanded, just to stimulate the curiosity and interest of the participants to continue the game.”
The Bethesda studio has already launched numerous games whose universe has gradually evolved, such as Skyrim, which is still just as popular twelve years after its release. In many ways, it served as a benchmark for Starfield.
“If you look at our Skyrim player count, let’s say in the last month, and how many millions of people have already played this game, you realize that this is not a game that is measured in hours spent playing it,” explained Bethesda Vice President Peter Hines last month.
The studio hopes that Starfield, which has more than 1,000 planets to explore, will have a significantly longer lifespan thanks to several updates, while the main story already takes several dozen hours.