Starfield Was Focused On Freedom Over Safer Less Buggy Game

Starfield is still two days away from its full release, but it has already provided a massive sandbox to hundreds of thousands of space explorers, accumulating over 234K concurrent Steam players during early access.

The game also peaked at 550K concurrent views on Twitch and impressed in more than a few key areas, including its mostly bug-free experience. Prior to its release, bugs were a major concern for audiences.

The developer spent extra time polishing the game, and Pete Hines has recently elaborated on the perception of buggy games from the developer. According to Pete Hines, the studio prioritizes player freedom over a less buggy release.

Why it matters: Bethesda Game Studios has become popular for various bugs in its previous games, and such releases have become tied to the developer’s identity over the years.

During a recent interview with Gamesindustry, Pete Hines from Bethesda Softworks addressed the history of Bethesda Game Studios with buggy games.

While Starfield is rightfully dubbed the most polished released from the studio, fans on the internet have already begun to share various clips of bugs from the massive space RPG.

Addressing the subject, Pete Hines admitted that bugs are inevitable in the kind of games made by Bethesda Game Studios. He went on to say that player freedom is put front and center in all Bethesda games and also said:

“We could make a safer, less buggy, less risky game if we wanted to. But what we try to lean into is player freedom.”

Even with the various bugs in Bethesda Game Studios’ titles, Pete Hines believes they rarely take anything away from the experience. They exist but usually add a charm and quirk to the studio’s titles.

Nonetheless, the studio has made great strides to ensure that Starfield keeps the same freedom from past games while ensuring players experience the least number of bugs possible.

For ambitious and massive games, bugs are inevitable, and Pete Hines suggests that Bethesda Game Studios embraces chaos.

During the interview, Pete Hines also provided a small update on Redfall, stating that Bethesda Softworks does not abandon its games. He then confirmed that Arkane Studios would continue working on the title and introduce a 60FPS patch.