During the E3 presentation in 2018, Bethesda took to the stage and teased an open-world RPG set in space and called it Starfield. It would be the first IP developed by Bethesda in over 25 years. After years of anticipation, the developer finally launched Starfield on September 6 exclusively for the Microsoft Xbox and Windows. Despite not even one month elapsing since it was launched, Starfield is already being lauded as the game of the year by many, with high critic scores and rave reviews from players.
Starfield Tops Sales Charts Even Before Launch as Fans Pay to Play Early
04.09.2023 - 16:51 / ign.com / Ryan Dinsdale
Starfield is currently performing very well for a game that isn't officially out yet, topping Xbox sales charts and drawing in thousands of users on Steam.
As reported by VG247, Game Pass members are currently flocking to the Xbox Store to hand over an extra $31.49 simply to play Starfield a few days early. The Premium Edition upgrade, which comes with some extra bits but is headlined by the chance to play ahead of September 6, is currently the best-selling item across the U.S. and UK Microsoft Stores.
The early access tactic administered by Microsoft is a neat way of gaining back some sales revenue lost by putting Starfield and other exclusives on Game Pass day-one, seemingly letting the company have its cake and eat it.
Steam users are also getting involved, even though the only opportunity to play early there is to buy the full Premium Edition at $100. According to data on SteamDB, Starfield hit a concurrent peak of over 245,000 players, with the daily peak rising between September 1 and 3 despite the package slowly growing less valuable.
Starfield's sales aren't the only surprise from its early access period though as, again, even though it's not officially launched, someone has already completed the game in less than three hours. In our 7/10 review, IGN said: "Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist."
If you're playing, IGN's interactive Starfield maps are now live. These include helpful city maps, a searchable star map, and more.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
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