Preloads for Starfield are now available on Steam.
For those Bethesda fans who don’t want to join and be tethered to the Microsoft – Xbox ecosystem, it’s now your turn to get prepared. As reported by Insider Gaming, preloads are a 116 GB download on Valve’s platform. The game is listed to be a 125 GB download in total.
This likely will be the bulk of the game assets, but not quite everything needed to play the game. I’m sure there would be many hackers eager to prove me wrong on this account and we’ll find out soon enough.
The Steam page also makes sure to remind players that Starfield needs to be on an SSD to run on PC. Bethesda’s design for this game is modern and comes with no compromises. If you try to run this game off of a HDD, it can still run. But you’re bound to have a bad time, especially when it comes to performance.
As we also know, Starfield isn’t quite Steam Deck Verified yet. But, Bethesda have announced that an upcoming update will increase compatibility with the Steam Deck, as well as other Windows based gaming handhelds, like the ASUS ROG Ally, and the panoply of devices from GPD, AYN, AYANEO, and more.
That update will likely include something that scales the icons and interfaces for play on these smaller devices. Since Starfield is a single player game with no online or multiplayer, there were no anticheats that would serve as a roadblock to playing this game. Bethesda has also not added any other DRM schemes on it, a welcome change from when they were pushing their own game client on Windows.
One final consideration for PC players is the AMD partnership. Bethesda has been skittish on whether Intel or Nvidia products will perform as well as AMD’s when it comes to running Starfield. They seem to be supportive of fans making their own patches for such compatibility, but that only raises the question if they plan to add such support themselves. If they do have a contract that restricts that now, at least we hope that they made the game playable on a basic level for all builds. Even if performance can’t be fully optimized on non AMD PCs, that would be a very basic expectation.
Starfield will be releasing on September 6, 2023, on Xbox Series X|S and Windows via Steam. It will also be Day One on Game Pass.
