Starfield hasn’t achieved the kind of universal critical claim many had anticipated it would, with even hardcore fans having admitted that it didn’t deserve to be in the running for a Game of the Year award. As a result it’s amassed a fair amount of negative reviews, some of which Bethesda has now bizarrely started replying to.
Yes, that’s right. If you’re a Steam player that’s recently decided to put your disappointment with the interstellar RPG into words, you might since have received a response from one of the game’s developers. Who knows, maybe a few paragraphs suggesting that the game is actually very good or reminding you that Bethesda has been and will continue to work very hard on it going forwards will be enough to totally change your mind.
As spotted by YouTuber JuiceHead, a number of these kinds of responses have been popping up over the past month or so, with some having been posted as early as November 2, while others are as recent as November 27. The majority of these replies have been posted by users that’ve been identified by Steam as official developers, with their handles being Bethesda_FalcoYamaoka and Bethesda_Kraken.
Judging by the responses they’ve written, a number of which include links to sections of Bethesda’s official website where players can provide feedback on Starfield or find guides designed to help them get to grips with its mechanics, it seems likely that these developers are affiliated with Bethesda Support in some way.
Bethesda is responding to negative Starfield reviews on Steam. Absolutely bizarre if you ask me and despite media attention this hasn’t stopped, the last response is from today pic.twitter.com/ay589tg8cc
— JuiceHead (@JuiceHead33) November 28, 2023
Outside of these links, there are plenty of rather amusing retorts to issues brought up by players, such as Bethesda_FalcoYamaoka telling one: “We are sorry that you do not like landing on different planets and are finding many of them empty. Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design – but that’s not boring.”
They then proceed to randomly drop the quote: “When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren’t bored,” which Bethesda managing director Ashley Cheng said back in early September in response to fan fears about some of the game’s 1000 planets being a bit empty.
The developers also provide some suggestions of things players could try doing in-game in order to improve their experience. For example: “Try creating different characters with backgrounds and characteristics that clash or are [opposite] of your previous character,” and ploughing on into a New Game plus playthrough.
It’s currently unclear why Bethesda would decide doing this kind of thing is a good idea or something that could actually influence people’s perceptions of the game for the better. After all, we all know how much folks on the internet love changing their minds after receiving a mind-mannered rebuttal from someone they don’t know.
If you’re craving some mods that might actually help to improve your Starfield, make sure to check out this one that’ll allow you to become a mega-rich outpost tycoon and this one that’ll ensure you avoid being jumpscared every time you initiate conversation.
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