Xbox Explains Why Starfield Was Delayed

Starfield has been a pretty big deal for Bethesda so far, and with its lofty ambitions for the game, it's resting a lot on its shoulders.

The space-faring adventure has some big promises to keep, with an almost endless galaxy to explore - each with its own environments and creatures. Although Bethesda has proved it can manage such a big undertaking before, it's also made some serious mistakes in recent memory.

Even so, the Starfield delay frustrated a lot of players. We're annoyed at being made to wait even longer for a game that has been in the works for years, but Phil Spencer assures us that it's the right thing to do.

Why Was Starfield Delayed?

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In conversation with The Verge, Xbox boss and all-around top fella Phil Spencer has spoken on the disappointing delay for Starfield. Spencer has made clear exactly why the decision was made to push the game back to 2023.

Spencer suggests that Xbox has put games out too prematurely in the past, and nobody wanted for Starfield to suffer the same fate. "It isn't really a decision to move a game after spending the team's effort over multiple years just to get to a point where you know you’re not going to deliver the game you want on the date that was promised," he says.

"Now, it is at some level, because I have shipped games too early. We have experienced shipping games too early." You only have to look at the debacle with Cyberpunk 2077's technical issues and having to release because it was delayed multiple times to see where Spencer is coming from.

Delaying Starfield Was "The Right Thing To Do"

Spencer indicates that the teams at Xbox and Bethesda don't feel as though they were wrong to push the game back to ensure it meets the quality they want it to.

"In hindsight, when you look at a game like Starfield, it’s taken so long and so much investment in new IP from the team," Spencer continues. "The decision to give the team the time to build the game that they feel they should be building is just the right thing to do.

"There are financial implications to those decisions. Weighing what is going to happen, whether it's platform growth, subscriber growth, or frankly, the revenue that you generate when a new game launches, those are business decisions. You definitely have to weigh the outcome of those decisions."

As Starfield's original release date passes us and we mourn for the time we could be spending playing Starfield, maybe Spencer is right - we'd rather have a good game late than a crap one on time. Even if we need our sci-fi itch scratched.