In brief: Starfield got a new teaser trailer during Bethesda'southward E3 press event. Information technology was a cinematic affair without any bodily gameplay footage, merely the video was created using the game's blastoff build. Withal, the real news was the confirmation that Starfield will be an Xbox sectional and the conflicting feelings surrounding that deal.

Starfield's Xbox exclusivity is not much of a surprise. Since purchasing Zenimax for $7.v billion terminal September, we knew Microsoft would grab anything that Bethesda had non already nailed down in an exclusivity bargain, including Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI. Withal, not all of Bethesda's heads experience the aforementioned about Starfield being exclusive to Xbox.

In a post E3 interview with GameSpot, Bethesda'south Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications Pete Hines apologized to PlayStation 5 owners for the studio'due south move away from its historically platform-doubter evolution.

"I don't know how to abate the concerns of PlayStation 5 fans other than to say, well, I'm a PlayStation 5 thespian as well, and I've played games on that console, and there'southward [sic] games I'yard gonna continue to play on information technology," Hines said. "All I tin really say is, 'I apologize,' because I'chiliad sure that that'south frustrating to folks, simply there's non a whole lot I can do about information technology."

When Bethesda appear Starfield and TESVI during E3 2022, Todd Howard did an excellent chore of exciting PlayStation and Xbox fans alike without saying too much of substance. Everyone, including Howard and the remainder of Bethesda, only assumed the games would launch on both platforms, but that was well before the Microsoft/Zenimax merger.

That said, Howard was unapologetic virtually Starfield's Xbox exclusivity. Earlier this week, Howard told The Telegraph that he felt making Starfield exclusive to Xbox (and by extension, PC) was in the game's best involvement.

"You don't e'er want to leave people out, correct?" Howard said but then went on to add that that is precisely what they are doing, and he's glad for it. "At the finish of the day, your ability to focus and say, this is the game I want to make, these are the platforms I desire to brand it on, and being able to actually lean [into] those is going to make for a better product."

He too goes on to paradoxically explicate that excluding an entire demographic of Bethesda's former fanbase somehow gets its games into more than players' hands.

"We're large believers in all of the avenues that Xbox and Microsoft are doing to get games to more people," Howard explained. "Whether that'south the integration with the PC, which is huge for usa, the cloud streaming and all those things. So I think it's about taking a long-term view."

He contends that because of "GamePass and other things," the ability of gamers to play Bethesda games does non decline but "goes up dramatically." Huh? Past whose math?

Maybe that is true when only considering Xbox players, but certainly not in general. The studio was previously producing on all platforms, so the ability to get more games into more hands did not become up when Microsoft told Bethesda, "No more than PlayStation development."

Was it the right move for Microsoft? Absolutely. Xbox has long suffered from a lack of console-selling exclusives. Xbox will benefit from Bethesda exclusivity tremendously. There are people who, when supply reaches normal levels, will purchase an Xbox Series Ten|S solely based on the fact that PlayStation is not getting Starfield or any other hereafter Bethesda title.

Is it going to do good Bethesda as an individual production house? Even early on in this current panel war, PlayStation has a lead in console sales. When you consider the number of total units sold with past Bethesda games beyond all platforms, it'south easy to run across that its position is not as assisting from a pure numbers standpoint under the Microsoft umbrella. However, that's office of the deal, and as Hines said, "There's not a whole lot [Bethesda] tin can do nearly information technology."