Starfield playtesters are reportedly enjoying the upcoming Bethesda RPG, with even pessimistic folk allegedly coming away with strong, good first impressions. In short, many seem to think that Bethesda has nailed Starfield's scale, as well as its general size and ambition compared to Fallout.

As many know, Starfield is the first new IP from Bethesda in decades, and its releases tend to be seminal events in the industry. Skyrim, Fallout, and more have defined the company's success, but obviously, this puts a lot of pressure on anything new from the company. This is especially true since Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft, with Todd Howard previously discussing the pressure for Starfield to be a "Platform Seller," but if these supposed first impressions are anything to go by, perhaps it just might.

RELATED: Every Major Open-World Game Confirmed for January 2023

This information comes way of the XNC Podcast and host Colt Eastwood, who claims to have a channel of people connected to people playtesting the game. Of course, this means the information is somewhat removed from Eastwood himself, but he claims this information pipeline has alerted him to potential issues with games in the past, such as the bugs for Cyberpunk 2077's launch. All in all, it should be taken with a grain of salt, even as Eastwood says he doesn't want to oversell Starfield, but even pessimists walking away impressed would be a good sign.

However, that's about as deep as this goes. Starfield supposedly takes everything Bethesda has done in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises, doubles down on them, and improves them. Many have been understandably worried about the hundreds of star systems, as well as the thousands of planets in Starfield, but it seems that the scale of the game has gotten some praise. This bodes well, especially given the reportedly good impressions about its ambitions in story, gameplay mechanics, and wherever else this is implied.

In fact, Eastwood believes that Starfield is close to being ready for launch, saying he wouldn't be surprised if it dropped before Redfall. Reportedly, Redfall has been delayed internally by about six weeks, given the nature of the beast that is game development, but reports have pointed to Redfall releasing in May. Whatever happens with both games' release, there's clearly a lot riding on Starfield and Redfall for the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass, and more. Fans will hopefully hear more about both games relatively soon, as an Xbox Conference is rumored for early 2023.

Starfield releases in H1 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: How Starfield Might Capture the Magic of Classic RPGs

Source: XNC Podcast (via Twisted Voxel)