Bethesda’s studio design director has chimed in on some weird misinformation going around about Starfield: Shattered Space.
Emil Pagliarulo made this statement matter-of-factly on Twitter:
“Some weird disinformation floating around. Time to address it. Once you land on the Va’ruun homeworld, you can absolutely leave and come back at your pleasure.
You are not “locked in” there for the DLC. Shattered Space feels like any other integrated part of the game.”
We tried our best to trace where this rumor started, and as best as we can tell, this seems to be a misinterpretation of the actual news about this DLC.
This Facebook post claims that a Forbes article made this claim, but we could not find where it was said or even hinted at in said article. What makes this even stranger is that Bethesda clearly explained this detail from when they started talking about this DLC.
It’s been over a year since the original release of Starfield, its divisive critical reception, and its subsequent commercial success. It stands with an 85 MetaCritic score for PC and 83 for Xbox Series X|S. Subsequently, its OpenCritic score is at 85 %.
Reviews are all over the place, receiving scores ranging from 7s to perfect 10s. To contrast with that, it earned a total of 12 million players, including Game Pass Subscribers who played the game alongside gamers who bought the game full price.
While gamers are of course completely entitled to their own opinion, this seemed to be a case of misinformation easily passing around because some fans assumed any negative news about the game must have been real.
This may reflect a mistrust or dislike on how Bethesda made Starfield. But it’s just as likely to reflect on how even in something as inconsequential as video games, we are easily susceptible to confirmation bias.
Whether Starfield: Shattered Space will fix the issues that critics found in the game remains to be seen. But gamers who are spreading fake negative news about this DLC are really hurting themselves and other gamers more than Bethesda.
Bethesda gamers know that they have amassed a loyal following, that is willing to withstand the most broken of releases, because of the particulars of their game design. Some gamers may feel that their design is obsolete and out of touch with modern gaming.
But until that sentiment reflects on the financial success of their games, Bethesda won’t really feel the need to change. But then again, maybe we can give Bethesda the benefit of the doubt here, and Starfield: Shattered Space will demonstrate the modern game design we want the studio to have.
Starfield: Shattered Space will be released on September 30, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S and Windows via Steam. It will also be Day One on Game Pass.
