(Brussels) Starfield, one of the most anticipated video games of the year, makes its world debut on Wednesday, with all the attributes of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Microsoft, at the origin of this launch, is betting big on the success of this game, available on its Xbox Series console and on PC.
A role-playing game in a science fiction universe, it was created by the Bethesda studio, which the American giant acquired in 2020 as part of a total investment of some 7.5 billion dollars, to help it compete with Japanese Sony’s PlayStation.
Microsoft does not intend to stop there and is negotiating the purchase for 75 billion dollars of another major studio, Activision Blizzard, which notably has Call of Duty in its catalog.
Expectations around Starfield have gone up a notch, after the good reviews from the specialist press. On the aggregator Metacritic, it posted an average score of 88/100 on Tuesday.
Referring to cult sagas like Star Trek, Star Wars and Blade Runner, reviews point out that the game has an epic dimension, with an interesting story and a successful combat system.
These qualities make these games real “interactive films”, underlines Simon Little, the boss of Video Games Europe, an organization which brings together European developers.
Other recent games are in the same vein, like Hogwarts Legacy created by the teams at Avalanche Software, owned by producer Warner Bros., which dives into the world of Harry Potter, and Baldur’s Gate 3, a role-playing game created by Larian Studios. The latter obtained a score of 96/100 on Metacritic in its version for PC. Its adaptation on PlayStation 5 is released on Wednesday, the same day as Starfield.
In addition to purchasing Starfield separately for around 70 euros, it will also be possible to access it via Game Pass, Microsoft’s online game library whose subscription starts at 9.99 euros per month.
With this method of distribution, the American group hopes to benefit from recurring income by encouraging players to remain subscribers, thanks to updates or the launch of new productions.
“Unlike a book or a movie, which is written, finished and nothing else, a video game is never really finished,” says Simon Little. “It is always enhanced, modified, extended, just to pique the curiosity and interest of the participants to continue the game.”
The Bethesda studio has already launched numerous games whose universe has been gradually developed, such as Skyrim, still as popular twelve years after its release. In many ways, it served as a benchmark for Starfield.
“If you look at our player count on Skyrim, let’s say 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 watching it,” explained Bethesda Vice Chairman Peter Hines last month.
The studio hopes that Starfield, which has more than 1,000 planets to explore, will display significant longevity, thanks to multiple updates, while its main story already requires several dozen hours to complete.