Bethesda's latest open-world adventure Starfield has been out for three months now, and the response has been relatively tepid, particularly in contrast to the hype that preceded the game's release.
The game takes place in space and allows players to explore planets, moons and other environments, but some gamers haven't been enthused by traveling to several, largely empty planets in the cosmos and the frequent fiddling with menus and loading screens the game requires.
As of today, the game holds a "Mixed" rating on Steam, with 69 percent of players giving the game a recommendation.
This has evidently rankled Bethesda, who for the past month has been writing rebuttals to some of the negative reviews of the game on the platform. The company's practice has been known for some time in the Starfield community, but it went viral yesterday after several responses were tweeted by X / Twitter user @JuiceHead33.
In several of these rebuttals, Bethesda is defending its use of fast travel and loading screens by arguing they are necessary to allow players to experience the vast amount of content Starfield has to offer. It also defended itself against the criticism that the planets players explore are "largely empty."
In a particularly scathing review, reviewer UptownMermaid wrote, "A game about exploration that delivers the thrill of opening your menu, selecting the fast travel option, clicking to fast travel to a star system, loading, then opening your menu, clicking to fast travel to a planet, loading, then answering the same NPC dialogue at every planet before you're treated to another loading screen to finally land on planet."
Bethesda developer Bethesda_FalcoYamaoka responded, "We are sorry to hear that you were disappointed with encountering many loading screens while playing. While there may be loading screens in between fast travelling, just consider the amount of data for the expansive gameplay that is procedurally generated to load flawlessly in under 3 seconds. We believe that shortcoming will not hinder our players from getting lost in the world we created."
Another reviewer, Moonshot, wrote, "You don't really explore anything at all. You just teleport from desolate waste to desolate waste." FalcoYamaoka responded, "We are sorry that you do not like landing on different planets and are finding many of them empty. The intention of Starfield's exploration is to evoke a feeling of smallness in players and make you feel overwhelmed."
In one particularly noteworthy response, Bethesda told a reviewer disappointed with the desolate planets, "When astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored," which is a Todd Howard quote.
The practice has once again put Bethesda in social media's crosshairs, as some recalled that Bethesda was notably controversial in its handling of customer dissatisfaction during the Fallout 76 debacle. Others thought the responses were fascinating, if not exactly a rousing defense from Bethesda.
It's unclear why Bethesda has taken to rebutting individual negative reviews of the game, though some suspect the studio had big plans to have the game be a consistent revenue source over the next few years, and the declining player base has motivated the company to try and correct the narrative surrounding their game.
Still, players may prefer a course correction in the form of updates and content a la No Man's Sky than attempts to tell them they're wrong for not having Bethesda's intended emotional response.