Starfield 'boundary reached' leak leaves some worried Bethesda's planets have more limits than anticipated

28.08.2023 - 23:03 / pcgamer.com / Todd Howard / Pete Hines

«Boundary reached,» reads an in-game Starfield text box that circulated online over the weekend. «Open the map to explore another region, or return to your ship.»

The biggest game of the year is springing leaks just days before release, the latest of which is creating some uncertainty about one of its most anticipated features: planet exploration.

As collated by Kotaku, a «boundary reached» message appeared in leaked Starfield gameplay videos from both YouTube and a Chinese forum post that appeared over the weekend, both since removed but surviving via archive, seemingly indicating that Starfield's planets aren't one continuous open world. In a timelapse video, the player runs in a single direction on a planet for 10 minutes before reaching an invisible boundary.

Possible restrictions on planet map sizes came as a surprise to fans who expected Bethesda's boundless RPG to work more or less like No Man's Sky, a space exploration game that continuously renders planets in their entirety as you walk or fly around them. We've known all along that Starfield's exploration would have some limits, like how won't be able to fly your ship manually into a planet's atmosphere to land, but Bethesda hasn't been as specific about on-foot travel in official presentations. 

The Starfield “boundary reached” drama is very stupid, that’s all I’ll say https://t.co/TcqNkVjpxoAugust 26, 2023

We know from June's Starfield Direct that you can select a spot anywhere on a planet and land there. That's not necessarily contradicted by the «boundary reached» message, but it may indicate the game can only load the planet you're currently on in chunks. That's not how I assumed it'd work when Todd Howard said you can go anywhere in Starfield, but it would be par for the course for past Bethesda RPGs that load every time you enter a reasonably large building. The supposed limitation does, however, contradict an August 21 tweet reply from Bethesda's Pete Hines indicating you can explore a whole planet after landing.

Reactions around the leak are a mix of disappointment and acceptance, as well as skepticism that the leaks tell the whole story. One Steam thread with almost 200 comments includes several users wondering if people are misinterpreting the «boundary reached» message.

«The photo floating around about the border was also during the tutorial period of the game. Bethesda has already stated the game opens up much more after the tutorial,» wrote user Tyrael.

«The more I look into it the worse it is, so there are invisible ways and you are forced to go back to your ship to move to different 'chunks,'» wrote the thread's OP Andrien.

«The scope of the planets, and this game, are too massive to worry about how far I'm tethered to my