Bethesda fans have been waiting years to play the company's open world sci-fi RPG Starfield, and after the release date was announced at last year's E3 with a cinematic trailer, many had marked their calendars in anticipation. Bethesda said it was confident in Starfield's release date, and so it seemed as though the game was positioned to be one of the big new releases for fall 2022. Unfortunately for Bethesda fans, things have changed, and now they don't know exactly when they'll get to play Starfield.
Bethesda recently announced that it made the difficult decision to delay Starfield's release date to 2023. The game is still expected to release at some point in the first half of next year, but it's still going to leave a big gap for Xbox's lineup this holiday season. After all, Starfield was primed to be one of the first major Xbox Series X console exclusive titles, taking full advantage of the new hardware and giving early adopters a good reason to own the next-gen Xbox.
Not only does Starfield's release date delay hurt Xbox in general, but it is also a big blow to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, and it honestly couldn't have come at a worse time. Redfall was delayed alongside Starfield, and with both games scheduled to be day one Xbox Game Pass games, it means that the service has lost two of its big selling points this year.
Losing Redfall and Starfield to 2023 is going to hurt Xbox Game Pass big time, especially if Microsoft doesn't have an answer to fill the gap. If Microsoft's acquisition of Activision goes faster than expected, then maybe that will be a way to soften the blow, but by all accounts, it looks like that process is likely going to stretch into 2023 as well. It's likely that the next Forza Motorsport game will release in 2022, and there's also the indie horror game Scorn coming to Xbox Game Pass, but otherwise the lineup this year is looking rather bare.
It's possible that Microsoft will make some big announcements soon to assure Xbox Game Pass subscribers that they should stay subscribed to the service for the rest of 2022. As a matter of fact, a joint Xbox and Bethesda showcase is scheduled for June 12. It's believed that the showcase will focus primarily on Starfield, but other games will most certainly be featured, and it's entirely within the realm of possibility that those titles will release later this year.
Regardless, the Starfield delay is going to hurt, especially since the game was being pushed as Xbox's premiere holiday 2022 release. But there's another reason why the Starfield delay is such a big blow to Xbox Game Pass in 2022. Besides the fact that it makes the Xbox Game Pass 2022 lineup look a little disappointing, there's also Xbox's chief competition to keep in mind, and Sony is gearing up to make some anti-Game Pass moves in the very near future.
The Starfield release date delay has been announced mere weeks ahead of when Sony is going to introduce a big revamp to its PlayStation Plus service. In June, PS Plus subscribers in most regions of the world can look forward to three new tiers, meant to help PlayStation better compete with Xbox Game Pass. The PS Plus Essential tier is the service as it exists now, minus one of the monthly free games, while the PS Plus Extra tier basically combines it with PlayStation Now, in addition to some new high profile games. And finally, PS Plus Premium is the most expensive version of the new PS Plus, but it throws 300 retro games from the PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS3 eras on the pile. In total, this means that PS Plus Premium subscribers will have 700 games to choose from when the service launches.
The jury is still out on if hundreds of retro games will be enough to convince PlayStation gamers to subscribe to PS Plus Premium. After all, the PS Plus subscriber count is down, and it's hard to see how older games are going to be enough to draw in new users. Then again, nostalgia is a powerful thing, and it's possible that PS Plus Premium will draw in those who normally wouldn't bother subscribing to it or similar services on other consoles.
The big selling point of Xbox Game Pass over PS Plus Premium is that Game Pass has day one releases. PS Plus Premium is not really going to have day one releases, especially not from first-party Sony studios, and so the loss of major day one releases for Game Pass this year puts PS Plus Premium in a good position. It's clear that Microsoft will need to make some big moves to bolster the value of Xbox Game Pass in 2022 with Starfield's delay and PS Plus Premium right around the corner, and it will be interesting to see if it does so.