Starfield is easily one of the most highly anticipated games coming this year as a landmark science-fiction RPG from Bethesda. Early comparisons between Starfield and No Man’s Sky were made due to how comparable both titles seem, but Starfield still maintains Bethesda’s traditional shooter action from Fallout alongside an immense scale with over 1,000 planets to explore. Likewise, comprehensive ship customization and real-time flight mechanics are welcome additions to the traditional Bethesda RPG formula, and therefore it is likely that open-world exploration will be its main allure.
Otherwise, the breadth of storytelling and gameplay are rather unknown. That will hopefully be explained more during the recently announced Starfield Showcase on June 11, but in the meantime fans have a much longer wait for Starfield than they may have expected. Starfield’s release date has been officially revealed as September 6, making it a fall release when fans had believed it to be releasing in the summer. There are positive and negative considerations about this release date, with one negative being that it could share an intimate release window with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Starfield’s Delay Pushes It Free from Big Summer Releases
One substantial positive to consider about Starfield’s September launch is that it will not catch itself competing with other high profile releases in the summer. May is currently scheduled to launch The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Redfall.
Then, June includes launches for Street Fighter 6, Diablo 4, and Final Fantasy 16. July is sort of a gray area with few notable AAA games scheduled to release, but August follows it up with Sea of Stars, Lies of P, and Baldur’s Gate 3. Many more games release throughout the summer as well, but these picks demonstrate how huge of a summer 2023 will be for gaming without the likes of Starfield involved, especially if it was believed to launch in June with Capcom, Blizzard, and Square Enix’s heavyweight franchises.
It is unknown if June was Starfield’s intended release window before it pushed to September, or if more time is needed to polish the game and September happened to be more sustainable. Regardless, September might not be the safe haven that Bethesda hopes it is, with one of the most highly anticipated games of 2023 presently confirmed to release sometime this fall as well.
Starfield May Now Release Close to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has not narrowed down its release window past “fall” yet, but there is a sign pointing to when fans could potentially expect it to launch. Marvel’s Spider-Man released on September 7, 2018, and if that was deemed an appropriate release window for Insomniac then the developer may want to double-down on it again with the sequel. Putting it out on the same date would be a surprise, but releasing in September at all would now pit Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 against Starfield. These two games could not be more different from a gameplay or genre standpoint, but any time a AAA game releases near another there is always the possibility that one will dwarf the other.
It would seem like the game that releases sooner has more of an opportunity to thrive since more undivided time is left to play it before its competition comes out—however, in the case of Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring, the latter game seemed to eclipse the former entirely. Fans may have to wait a few months to find out when Insomniac plans to release Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for multiple reasons, and if Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases near Starfield it will be interesting to see whether that affects their respective sales.
Starfield launches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.