Ambitious titles with a lot of hype around them need to be handled with care. Bethesda, the creator of the renowned Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, has a particular problem on its hands, as it has two of these games on the way. The company is looking to release two huge RPGs in the future, namely Starfield, which is set to come out early next year, and The Elder Scrolls 6, which is likely a few years away still. Year ago, the fact that Bethesda had these titles lined up would've been enough to hype up any fan of the studio, but now gamers are keeping a more critical eye on Starfield.
Hype can be somewhat of a dangerous thing in the gaming industry. It begins when a developer or publisher will drum up a huge hype train for its latest title, revealing loads of trailers, screenshots, and details about a game in the years leading up to its release. Then, that release comes around and gamers find out their expectations have not been met. By no means does this happen with every game, but some notable titles in recent past have suffered from expectations being raised to an incredible amount. Cyberpunk 2077 has seen a resurgence this year, but when it released in 2020, many were extremely critical of the game and CD Projekt Red. Bethesda's upcoming games need to move forward with care for similar reasons.
Attitudes Towards Bugs in Gaming Have Changed Since Skyrim
It might be hard to believe that Skyrim released all the way back in 2011 for some. Considering the many re-releases of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim since it first launched, it can almost feel like it dropped fairly recently. However, back when gamers did first hear the words of Ralof as they awoke on their way to Helgen, Skyrim was not the most perfect experience. Many enjoyed it, and the game found immense praise from fans and critics alike, but there were certainly some issues, particularly in the realm of bugs and glitches.
NPCs would go missing, some characters would be launched into the stratosphere on their death at the hands of a giant, and so on. Even now, some players still find funny Skyrim glitches when traveling through the land of the Nords. However, while today a lot of Skyrim players will chalk up a flying NPC as part of the experience, were Bethesda to release a title with a similar level of bugs in 2023 or beyond, it would find a much harsher reception.
It seems that attitudes towards bugs in gaming have changed since the age of 2011. Now, should a highly anticipated title release in a buggy state, it is immediately panned by both fans and critics. Cyberpunk 2077 launched with a whole host of bugs that caused the game's initial poor reception. To look at a Bethesda title, Fallout 76 also launched in somewhat of a poor state. Alongside there being almost no single-player content within the game, players found that it was littered with glitches and bugs that took away from the intended experience.
With the substandard launch of Fallout 76 still fairly fresh in gamers' memories, there are a lot of people who aren't going to be satisfied if Bethesda releases a half-baked title that looks great on paper but is a buggy mess when played. Plenty of games these days manage to be incredible experiences without major bugs, so gamers' standards have been raised, and there is a higher bar that Bethesda must reach to repair its reputation following the release of Fallout 76. Even though the multiplayer game has improved itself over the years, fans won't forget its launch state any time soon.
The Wait Only Builds Expectations for Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6
Fallout 76 launched in 2019, meaning the last time Bethesda developed and released a single-player RPG was in 2015 with Fallout 4, which makes it seven years since the company dropped a single-player RPG. Oblivion, the fourth Elder Scrolls game, was succeeded by Skyrim five years after it launched. In between the launch of those two games, fans had also seen the release of Fallout 3. Back then, a lot of players of Bethesda games were expecting the next title from the studio to slightly build on its predecessor.
Now, there are some great expectations for Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, and these have only been given the chance to build with the wait between Bethesda RPG releases. With Bethesda still fueling the hype around its upcoming games, releasing the teaser for The Elder Scrolls 6 long before it even finished Starfield, there are plenty of fans out there whose expectations increase with each passing year.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing for Bethesda, so long as it can live up to the hype. Despite some missteps with Fallout 76, the studio has created some impressive games. The fact that people still enjoy playing Skyrim today proves that. The gameplay footage and trailers for Starfield shown so far for it show how Bethesda isn't just creating a new IP with a comparable scope to its previous titles. Instead, there is a clear sense of scale and ambition in the promotion for Starfield.
With so much hype revolving around these next Bethesda games, the company could be gearing up for a grand return to prominence with ambitious, huge titles, but it could also be setting itself up for failure. If Todd Howard tells fans there will be 1,000 planets to explore in Starfield, they are going to expect that, and there will also be those who aren't going to be satisfied unless all of those worlds have their own unique creatures, characters, and stories. This means that even if Bethesda is looking to make up for the wait with ambition in its games, that might not necessarily mean fans will immediately love them on release.
Starfield launches on PC and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.