It is a fact that Starfield will not be coming to PlayStation, as it will be exclusive to Xbox consoles. This could be very disappointing for those who were hoping to play it on PlayStation 5, but for Bethesda, it was a very positive outcome because it will allow the game to be better.
The legal dispute involving Xbox, PlayStation, Activision Blizzard King, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States has sparked a lot of discussion due to all the revelations made by the companies involved in front of the judge.
Among the statements that stood out the most were those of Pete Hines, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Bethesda Softworks, who celebrated when he found out that Starfield would be an Xbox exclusive on consoles.
Why did Bethesda appreciate Starfield being exclusive to Xbox?
The Bethesda executive (a subsidiary of Microsoft) confessed that he personally supported the decision to make Starfield exclusive to Xbox. Not because he didn't want the space game to be available on PlayStation 5, but because he wanted the title to be the best it could be.
For him, the exclusivity with Xbox was very positive since it allowed Bethesda to focus on the two platforms Starfield will be released on: Xbox Series X|S and PC, instead of three.
"As someone who's been playing it and seen all the stuff that there is to do, there is no doubt in my mind that being able to focus on fewer platforms to support, fewer hardware configurations to support, has been a real benefit for the team," expressed Hines.
Starfield would have cost more and arrived later if it weren't exclusive to Xbox
Hines explained that Starfield is "unbelievably big" and that the developers have many technical details to consider in order to make the game run well. It is crucial to do a lot of testing to ensure its quality. Having fewer platforms to focus on will not only allow the game to debut on time on September 6, 2023, but it will also have fewer issues and won't exceed the budget.
"The fewer platforms you have to deal with, the more rounds of testing you can do [with quality assurance]; if you've got 100 people testing two platforms, you can allocate 50 to each. If you've got three, the math says you have fewer people on each one. You'll find fewer issues, you won't go as fast. It will take longer, it will cost more," commented Hines (via Polygon).
While Hines explicitly refers to Starfield to support the exclusivity with Xbox, an interesting point is that this reasoning could apply to any large-scale multiplayer title, such as hypothetically, Call of Duty, in case Microsoft manages to acquire Activision Blizzard King.
On the other hand, Hines expressed confusion over Xbox's decision to keep Call of Duty multiplatform if the acquisition is finalized: "It's the opposite of what [Xbox and Microsoft] are asking us to do with our other titles," Hines stated (via IGN).
What do you think of Pete Hines' statements? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Starfield is currently in development for Xbox consoles and PC, and it is expected to be released on September 6, 2023.
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