Bethesda has been able to focus more on development and not on adapting the game to other platforms.
Having an exclusive game on a console can be negative. The limitation of being alone in an ecosystem, the power of the consoles, the number of users, and many other factors play against it. But, in some cases, it is certainly positive. And this is exactly what Bethesda has experienced with the development of Starfield.
Todd Howard, Bethesda’s director and executive producer, mentioned Starfield on Lex Fridman’s podcast. The game director confirmed that the development of Starfield is going at a good pace and confirmed something very important: Bethesda has focused all its efforts on the development of Starfield and not on adapting the game to various consoles, since it is an Xbox exclusive game.
Bethesda puts all its effort into the development of Starfield
Starfield was very controversial in the middle of this year due to the use of the old but “improved” Creation Engine. Many gamers have thought that Bethesda’s game in development will be a failure due to this issue. But Howard has come to calm the waters and confirmed that the game will be a total success despite its delay earlier this year.
During Lex Fridman’s YouTube podcast, Todd Howard gave us a lot of details about Starfield – the development of each planet’s unique ecosystem, the depth of the story, the customization, and much more. But, Howard dropped a bombshell that has caught the attention of many gamers: The boost in the development thanks to Starfield‘s exclusivity on Xbox.
Starfield is the second game developed by Bethesda exclusively for Xbox consoles. This has meant that the entire development team has been able to focus purely on developing and improving the game. Time and effort that in previous games had to be dedicated to the adaptation to other consoles.
“From a development side, I like the ability to focus… and have help from them – the top engineers at Xbox, to say ‘we are going to make this look incredible on the new systems’, is like from my standpoint, it’s just awesome,” Howard said.
Of course, those are just Howard’s words. The ultimate test is when the game launches and we see the improvement provided by the exclusivity.
It should also be noted that Microsoft owns Bethesda; Microsoft is currently struggling to secure regulatory approval for its purchase of Activision Blizzard with Sony strongly disapproving of the acquisition.
