Starfield
Everybody allegedly hates console wars, even the people participating in them, but they’re never going to stop as long as there are rival plastic boxes and people only want to spend $400-$500, not $800-$900 for both of them.
But Starfield is about to, and has already started to, generate what is without question one of the most irritating console wars in ages, the main reason being that you know if Starfield had remained third party, rather than being gobbled up by Microsoft as an Xbox/PC exclusive, none of this would be happening. But suddenly a giant Bethesda game, one with megahits like Fallout 3-4, Skyrim and Oblivion behind it, is supposed to be terrible, according to PlayStation fans, because of loads of different reasons. While Microsoft fans are practically fainting from excitement, on the flip side.
There is no outcome that will prevent this:
- If Starfield is amazing, PlayStation fans will lament that Microsoft is exercising monopolistic rights to keep it away from them, and it will still be discounted and nitpicked as probably not that good and very overrated.
- If Starfield is merely good, PlayStation fans will lambast it for being disappointing and not living up to the highly rated games of Bethesda’s past. Xbox fans will in turn do everything possible to say no, it’s actually amazing and you’re all wrong.
- If Starfield is bad, PlayStation fans will feast on that for years, and claim it spells the doom of Microsoft’s first party ambitions. Xbox fans will say it was in production for years before Microsoft bought it so it’s not their fault.
And while this is painting PlayStation fans as perhaps more hostile, I know that Xbox fans would be doing the same thing if the situation was reversed.
Starfield
This has already started. The most widespread “controversy” (I am skipping the stupid title screen one) is that leaks suggest that there are boundaries in the planets you can land on, meaning you cannot walk around the entire world. PlayStation fans say this is breaking a promise, and if No Man’s Sky can do it, why can’t Bethesda? Xbox fans are saying that this doesn’t matter and is a stupid argument.
And again, this is deeply annoying because it’s only sparked by exclusivity. If it wasn’t exclusive, the overwhelming thought was that it would probably be another good mainline Bethesda entry that everyone was excited to play. It would be pre-launch Baldur’s Gate 3 without any significant drama attached to it. But because of the Xbox situation, it has to be torn down because this is the ecosystem we live in.
So, we’ll see which of the three options we end up with later this week. Can’t wait.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
