Starfield’s Lack of Gameplay Trailers Doesn’t Mean A Delay
Bethesda’s Starfield hasn’t shown any of its gameplay yet, leading many to worry about delays. However, this slow reveal could be good news for fans.
Though Bethesda’s much awaited Starfield has not released any gameplay trailers, the game is still likely to come out on its launch date. Bethesda has confirmed it will release Starfield on November 11, 2022, much like it has done with other titles in the past. However, with such sparse information about the game, it seems as though there’s a chance that Starfield may not be ready by next November – although there hasn’t been any other suggestion of development issues.
Bethesda announced Starfield in 2018 at E3. The game will offer the first original universe the Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer has developed in 25 years. However, since 2018, Bethesda has only scattered a breadcrumb trail of information on the game that has thus far not led to any massive revelations. E3 2021’s teaser trailer has shown that Starfield looks to be an exciting world to of galactic exploration, but other than this loose concept of what the game is designed to be, no other details about the story or gameplay have been released. This has led some to worry about Bethesda’s ability to complete Starfield in time for its scheduled 2022 launch.
Those who are concerned are likely to be anxious in vain, though. The most probable explanation behind Bethesda’s slow gameplay reveal process for Starfield is that the company wants to keep its secrets and slowly build hype for the game until its release. Not only has Bethesda done this before, but one if its biggest competitors has also seen the consequences of pushing gameplay reveals out before the game was ready to be shown.
Bethesda Likes Teasers (& Avoiding CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 Demo Fiasco)
In the media campaign leading up to the release of Cyberpunk 2077, developer CD Projekt Red was excited to show a gameplay demo of its game in 2018 – two whole years before its actual release in 2020. While the demo was beloved, the impact it had on the actual game was largely negative. Features in the incomplete demo ended up missing in CDPR’s final product, making the buggy mess Cyberpunk 2077 was on launch feel like it was built on a foundation of dishonesty. Indeed, a Bloomberg report came out sharing that developers of the game called the demo “fake” and that they wasted months working on the demo when they should have focused on the actual game itself. The last thing Bethesda and its fans want is a replication of this fiasco for Starfield. After all, games tend not to take on their final form until the months leading up to their release, so sharing gameplay years in advance can pave the way for the disappointment experienced by CDPR and Cyberpunk 2077 fans.
Bethesda is also known for slowly releasing information about its games to the public. Even with Elder Scrolls 6 in the distant horizon, Bethesda has chosen to give away almost zero information about the contents of the game itself despite letting people know about its existence in 2018. This type of slow build works perfectly for the types of games the developer makes. So much of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series works by letting players discover their large open worlds with as little information going into them as possible. Starfield, as a completely new open world, will thus greatly benefit from Bethesda’s press tactics.
Bethesda has also confirmed it is excited to share more information about the game in 2022. Given that both the announcement and teaser trailers have been shown at E3, E3 2022 looks likely to bring a welcome update about Starfield’s setting, planets, and locations if not some more in-engine assets and possibly even gameplay. Either way, fans should have enough to whet their appetites as the game approaches its release date, one still seems, in the absence of any other news, like as not to be its final one.
