Xbox talks Starfield's "comet launch"

31.08.2023 - 10:53 / gamesindustry.biz / Todd Howard / Phil Spencer / Jerret West

Xbox attended Gamescom all guns blazing last week. The intent felt clear from the start: Microsoft wanted to make a statement.

Following a strong showing at Gamecom Opening Night Live, the platform holder had its biggest booth ever at the event, 50,000 square feet built by 500 people over two weeks, with 30 playable games. And it was showcasing the much anticipated Starfield on the very first day, in a theatre seating 300 people, with the unexpected company of Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Bethesda director Todd Howard.

This feels like a pivotal moment for Microsoft, with Starfield in a unique position (and a lot of pressure) to deliver as an Xbox exclusive. A few days from the game's launch, there's a trepidation that can be felt across the industry.

"Starfield, as I'm looking at it, is sort of like a comet game launch," Xbox chief marketing officer Jerret West tells GamesIndustry.biz. "By that, I mean games like Starfield only come along every couple of years, where it catches the attention of not just the gaming industry but it starts to expand into broader consumers and consumer conversations.

"We've been really planful about the beats coming up to this, so we knew that [June's Xbox] Showcase was a huge moment, and driving 92 million viewers to the Starfield Direct, and all of those pieces, were huge for us. And now, you're going to start to see us really explode it much more broadly."

West says this isn't just an important moment for Xbox but one that also "emotionally captures and draws gamers into the community."

One of the ways Xbox is hoping to draw more people into the community is by launching Bethesda's long awaited space opera day-and-date on Game Pass. West is expecting a "good mix" of players across both Game Pass and more traditional purchases, talking about a "dual purpose." But it feels clear that part of the goal at least is to grow Game Pass numbers.

"[Starfield] certainly will drive Game Pass subscriptions [and] it will certainly drive a lot of base game purchases, because it really does come down to just the purchase preference," West says. "But there's no doubt it's amazing to be able to stand up a game day-and-date in Game Pass that really gets people experiencing what the subscription model is like, and then discovering all of the wonderful games that sit alongside it within the catalogue."

Launching such an anticipated project in a subscription service is not something we'd have expected less than a generation ago, but it's faithful to Xbox's recent strategy. But how do you even market a game like Starfield as a Game Pass product, and how do you tie that in with the Xbox consoles, if that is the objective at all?

"The way that I think about it is that Starfield… these