Friday, December 22nd 2023
Starfield Played By 13 Million Players and Bethesda Promises Updates Every Six Weeks Next Year
Bethesda has released its "end of the year update" for Starfield, as well as shared some statistics from the game, including the fact that it has been played by 13 million players. In addition, Bethesda has also promised updates every six weeks, starting in February next year.
While the published statistics do not give a lot of details and those 13 million players do not translate to actual sold games, mostly due to the Xbox Game Pass, it does have some fun facts, including that the game has over 22 million days played, with 40 hours as an average playtime per player, and that players have visited nearly 2 billion planets. As of February next year, Bethesda's new updates for Starfield will include everything from quality-of-life improvements to content and feature updates. Bethesda has also promised the all new gameplay options, as well as the official mod support with the launch of Creations. The first major expansion for the game, Shattered Space, is also under development and more information should be available next year.
Source:
Bethesda
While the published statistics do not give a lot of details and those 13 million players do not translate to actual sold games, mostly due to the Xbox Game Pass, it does have some fun facts, including that the game has over 22 million days played, with 40 hours as an average playtime per player, and that players have visited nearly 2 billion planets. As of February next year, Bethesda's new updates for Starfield will include everything from quality-of-life improvements to content and feature updates. Bethesda has also promised the all new gameplay options, as well as the official mod support with the launch of Creations. The first major expansion for the game, Shattered Space, is also under development and more information should be available next year.
28 Comments on Starfield Played By 13 Million Players and Bethesda Promises Updates Every Six Weeks Next Year
I don't think it's a horrible game no, but it's as if they only played Fallout 4 and skyrim the last 8 years and did not see how the AAA(A) gaming industry moved to new animations, immersion, storytelling and everything. It's an old generation Bethesda RPG when it needed to really innovate and bring Bethesda to the next generation of gaming.
Thats said one of those is fixed already - no city maps. Some others of the top of my head -
- lack of ground vehicles.
- lack of anything to do or quests on undescovered planets.
- how empty the game is outside of the main spaces stations, citys, planets etc.
- Intellegent and user configurable fast travel.
And...my main issue it is no Skyrim, I'd be happy if exploration and immersion were as on-point as in Skyrim...I was bored much more than in Skyrim which is one of my all-time favourite game btw.
If TES VI is that close to the 2011 Skyrim I'd be disappointed too, it's not about making what others are making, it's about evolving, Starfield did not evolve Bethesda enough for me, especially around the story/characters/animation/immersion part I mentioned
Games are a matter of taste, a lot of people hate Skyrim, just as there are millions who simply love the game and have spent hundreds of hours playing it, myself included. The same goes for Starfield, being a fan of Bethesda games and a casual player I can't have the same perception that other people had. I expected a broken game with grotesque bugs that prevented play and minimal graphical advances, but they delivered a game that works better than practically any other AAA release this year, I also noticed huge graphical advances compared to the company's other games.
Yes, I see design errors, there were bad choices during development, I think the AI and combat mechanics deserved to be much better. But that doesn't change the fact that it's one of the best games of the year.
What counts are Actual players on a 8 hours time period.
EDIT: It looks like someone else had the same thing happen in the exact same room of the Abandoned Cryo-Lab as I did (except his enemy was an Ecliptic Mercenary):
I agree with you that a planetside vehicle would be great because there's no question that it gets annoying has hell having to run everywhere on foot when you have limited sprint capacity.
The blank planets are for the most part useless but every planet and moon (except gas giants and ice giants) has resources that you can extract.
The game is empty to give you the feeling of being alone in space and the time period in which it is set would be unrealistic if it weren't mostly empty. At the point in time that Starfield represents, humanity has only colonised a handful of worlds. There's also the RL aspect of the game to consider as it's already ~130GB in size and making it larger would cause some people .
I have no problem with the fast travel system. I actually find it to be one of the most comprehensive fast travel systems that I've ever seen in a game.
The city maps aren't an issue because you do eventually remember where everything is. The largest cities are New Atlantis and Akila City and while they can be daunting at first, it doesn't take long to remember where everything is. I could tell you exactly where everything is in each city at this point without missing a beat. That learning curve is part of the fun for me.
It sounds like the game isn't for you and that's ok, no game is for everyone. However, those aren't bugs. A bug causes the game to crash or puts a quest-critical item or npc in a place that you can't reach. These are just aspects of the game itself that you don't like.
I didn't play it yet but what you describe sounds like an unfinished game. It can still be great fun but it doesn't change the fact that it's unfinished. At least it works alright contrary to the usual unfinished and broken combo.
Unless you count an RPG-7 as one in FC5
Cool main story, pretty good shooting mechanics, everything else is terrible. Exploration, the main aspect of Bethesda games, was basically removed.
It will be interesting to know what patches are going to be released, I mean according to Bethesda the game is already running perfectly and it's our own PCs that aren't fast enough. What patches could there possible be if the game is already optimised and running as intended?
I’ve dropped lots of cash and hours on Destiny 2, and it’s still a bit of a mess, and from what I gather, they lost a lot of players with their last DLC. They keep the product rolling, but it’s this micro-moneygrab model that is such a turn off. I’m a tough person to market to though, as I have the cash to spend, but I lack the time really keep up with some of the ever-changing content and progression with these titles.