Starfield, the first new intellectual property developed by Bethesda Game Studios in over twenty-five years, is less than six months away from its release date. In case you need further proof than the official release date announcement, now we also have the official rating assigned to the game by the Australian board.
Starfield has been restricted to 18+ gamers, though that’s not very surprising since Australians tend to be extremely strict with their ratings. The game’s page actually includes breakdowns of the various themes and their impact as it was gauged by the board.
There’s ‘strong impact’ violence in Starfield, while language and themes have been rated to be of ‘moderate impact’, nudity has only a ‘very mild impact’, and sex has no impact – likely meaning there is none in the game (though mods will take care of that in short order, we reckon). The reason the game received an 18+ rating is the drug use, which has been deemed to be of ‘high impact.
Starfield hasn’t been rated by the United States ESRB or the European PEGI yet, but it’s conceivable the rating will be slightly lower there. All of the latest games launched by Bethesda Game Studios (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76) have received a Mature (17+) rating by the ESRB.
Originally announced at E3 2018 alongside The Elder Scrolls VI as a means to reassure fans that two big single player games would follow the Fallout 76 multiplayer experiment, Starfield first received an in-game teaser trailer at E3 2021. At the time, the developers also shared the planned November 11th, 2022 release date, which would have marked the eleventh anniversary of the launch of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the company’s most successful game ever.
However, the game was delayed in early 2022 (alongside Arkane’s Redfall) to the first half of 2023. A few days ago, Bethesda Game Studios confirmed another short delay: Starfield is now scheduled to hit physical and digital stores on September 6th. The game’s director, Todd Howard, will present a detailed showcase called Starfield Direct on June 11th, immediately following the Xbox Games Showcase at E3 Digital 2023.
Starfield, powered by the latest iteration of the Creation Engine (described by the developers as the biggest tech overhaul they made from game to game, particularly in the areas of rendering, animation, pathing, and procedural generation), will be available on PC and Xbox Series S|X. Just like all Xbox titles, it will be included in the Game Pass library on day one.
