Bethesda Is Responding to Negative Starfield Reviews on Steam

Starfield is one of Bethesda’s most polarizing titles. Months after its launch, Bethesda is responding to gamers’ negative Starfield reviews online.

As the website VG247 points out, some of Bethesda’s developers are responding to unenthusiastic reviews for Starfield on Steam. Their handles are Bethesda_FalcoYamaoka and Bethesda_Kraken, and they have been posting responses all throughout this month.

One X user, JuiceHead, compiled a collection of responses that are a nice encapsulation of the type of feedback Bethesda is giving players:

Related: Yes, Starfield References Skyrim’s Most Quoted Meme

Some of the explanations make sense, like the reasoning behind why there are so many loading screens (a huge amount of data being processed). Others, though, are just plain odd. My personal favorite is this quote from Bethesda_FalcoYamaoka responding to someone who is upset that many of Starfield‘s planets are empty: “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.” The amount of mental gymnastics on display here to defend barren worlds is staggering.

Another response, from Bethesda_Kraken, clapped back at a player who called the game’s story “generic.” “Starfield is an RPG with hundreds of hours of quests to complete and characters to meet. Most quests will also vary on your character’s skills and decisions, massively changing the outcome of your playthrough. Try creating different characters with backgrounds and characteristics that clash or are oppositive of your previous character. You will feel like you are playing a totally different game. Put points in different skills from a character you’ve previously created, and you are now faced with completely different decisions to make and difficulties to encounter.”

I do understand being proud of your work. But it is bizarre to see Bethesda jumping into these Steam reviews and posting defenses for valid criticisms of Starfield. It just reeks of desperation.

If you’re interested in reading more about Starfield, he’s an article about its most popular infinite money glitch being patched.