Starfield fans have been calling for Bethesda to pay tribute to a gamer who passed away before getting a chance to experience the studio's much-anticipated space-faring RPG. Their pleas emerged online shortly after some fans already vowed to name their Starfield ships after the late gamer.
Back in early March, Alex Hay took to Reddit to express his disappointment at the Starfield release date announcement, revealing that he had just stopped treatment for lung cancer and was in palliative care. Hay said he's been following Starfield for years and was hoping to experience it before dying but that holding out until September 6 was "unlikely." Hay asked future players to at least enjoy themselves on his behalf and then succumbed to his illness shortly afterward, aged 35.
A portion of the fandom subsequently started calling for Bethesda to create an in-game tribute to Hay. Their pleas have so far mostly been limited to a small Twitter campaign using the hashtag #AlexInStarfield, which started in mid-May. And while these efforts haven't yet gone viral, Bethesda-focused YouTuber Light recently reported that the studio has already been made aware of Hay's story. What's more, Light shared on Twitter that the developers are "likely" planning to pay some sort of tribute to the late fan in Starfield, citing unnamed sources.
With Starfield being mere months away from release, it's dubious whether the day-one version of the game could feasibly include a tribute to Hay. Even the smallest additions to complex software like a AAA open-world RPG take time to implement, meaning that these calls for Hay to be immortalized in Starfield came with a pretty short notice. Given that state of affairs, it's plausible that the developer will only add a tribute to Hay in a future update to the game, assuming it goes through with the idea.
This wouldn't be the first homage to a late gamer that Bethesda has made. Back in 2016, the ZeniMax-owned studio memorialized one fan's brother in the Nuka World DLC for Fallout 4. The studio also gifted his surviving relative with a wide variety of collectibles, on top of sending a personalized letter from the developers expressing their condolences.
Bethesda's fandom is generally quite empathetic toward these types of stories. This was previously exemplified when the Fallout 76 community had a touching moment over some in-game memorials. Prior to that, the studio's fandom has been campaigning for The Elder Scrolls 6 to include a tribute to Colton "Colt" Meredith, a long-time Skyrim fan who passed away in 2020.
Starfield launches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: GamesRadar