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Microsoft Game Studios head Matt Booty has tempted fate by claiming that Starfield will launch with fewer bugs than any other Bethesda game. Notably, he only says it will have fewer bugs, not necessarily that the bugs will be less severe, but it's still a bold claim for a studio that's become notorious for its extremely buggy games at launch.

"We have an awful lot of people internally playing it," said Booty on a Giant Bomb livestream (as spotted by VGC). "Working with Todd and the team, I see bug counts and just by the numbers, if it shipped today, this would have the fewest bugs that any game from Bethesda has ever shipped with."

However, this will be the first game released by Bethesda Game Studios since its acquisition by Microsoft in 2020. Phil Spencer, speaking on the same livestream, said that they pushed back Starfield's expected release date after the acquisition and have been prioritizing squashing bugs.

"Truth be told, when the acquisition closed, this game had a significantly earlier ship date than where we're actually launching it," Spencer said. "I think Matt said we have every QA person in our entire company playing Starfield right now, looking at bug counts, looking at the quality of where we are. The nice thing about what we showed today from my perspective is: that was the game. We've been playing the game for quite a while and that's the game."

With Starfield launching on September 6, 2023, Microsoft only has a few months left to finish squashing bugs if they want to make good on this promise.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

We’ll see about if it “just works” this time around

 

[anhminh]

That is like saying Arctic Ocean have the fewest water among the oceans.

 

[regnad]

So essentially “this will suck less than anything we’ve ever done!”

 

[Dimensional]

Has the fewest bugs? So it has a million instead of the traditional Bethesda Billion?

 

[The Catboy]

But those were features

 

[nWo]

What the hell? What kind of statement is that? Man. did I laugh.

 

[mister_smang_n_watch]

Has the fewest bugs? So it has a million instead of the traditional Bethesda Billion?

Was about to ask "what's less than a shitload?"

 

[Noctosphere]

Fewest bug of any of their release?
That means still too many?

 

[Immortallix]

Only the highest of standards for our dear Todd

 

[KingVamp]

Bold claim Cotton.

The way it is worded, does that mean it will just have more bugs later on?

 

[Dimensional]

Was about to ask "what's less than a shitload?"

Not sure, but I know a Metric F'ckton is bigger than a shitload.

 

[RAHelllord]

They claimed that for their previous releases as well and that turned out to be not true either.

Unless he's talking about literal insects in which case he might actually be correct for once.

 

[jahrs]

Why would you even use that as an eye catch seriously that's like walking onto a busy highway and saying this time I'll get hit by less cars.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

There's a saying that goes: "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
Watch this become one of those infamous quotes that will never, ever be forgotten by anyone.

Uh, I just thought, maybe they could be truthful here, it might be Bethesda's less buggy game... by means of having so little content on launch that there isn't much to fuck up there, heh.

 

[N10A]

Appreciate the apparent honesty that there will still be bugs in the game at launch, hopefully this doesn't mean they think they're exempt from the now standard apology.jpg tweet when the game sends your character flying into the air at 15 fps because you "only" have an RTX 4070.

 

[tabzer]

Seems weird that they know how many bugs they are shipping it with.

 

[KingVamp]

They claimed that for their previous releases as well and that turned out to be not true either.

Unless he's talking about literal insects in which case he might actually be correct for once.

I hope not. Can you imagine alien insects?

 

[Darth Meteos]

... no. saying you're aiming for that. why would you promise something that's not 100% in your control?

 

[Xzi]

"Fewest bugs of any Bethesda release" is a pretty low bar. Even with thousands of bugs at launch they'd still be keeping that promise.