Starfield is one of the year’s most eagerly anticipated titles, with launches scheduled in late August and early September, depending on which version fans decide to purchase. The hype is steadily building, and the Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany has provided the perfect opportunity for Bethesda to show new footage of the game in action, as well as to answer some lingering questions before fans get their hands on it. One recurring question is just how big the game actually is.
At the Gamescom event, entertainment outlet IGN sat down for an interview with Pete Hines, Bethesda’s Head of Publishing. He has understandably spent a lot of time playing Starfield. In the interview, he took a moment to describe his personal experience with the game, and spoke to the experience of finally launching it.
Counting the hours
“I’m at 150, 160 hours on my current playthrough,” Hines said, after noting there’s no specific number of hours that might prompt him to suggest a person has played enough of the game to recognize what it’s all about. “And I haven’t even come close. Like, there is so much stuff I have intentionally not done.”
With the welcome level of hype Starfield is currently enjoying, Hines and the busy team at Bethesda are finally talking to members of the gaming press and influencers who have early access. From the sound of things, those conversations are going very well.
“The folks that are playing it… One of the few things they will tell us is, ‘Yeah, you weren’t kidding how big — I can’t believe how big it is,'” Hines added.
Major releases like Starfield often make their way to influencers and press as close to their release as possible to discourage leaks. With a game Bethesda knows is so big, it makes sense the company provided access sooner. Players can rest assured that whatever words people ultimately use to describe Starfield, ‘big’ will be one of the ones in regular rotation.
