Starfield – it’s been a busy week (Picture: Bethesda)
A reader is disturbed by the whole Bethesda review controversy of the last week and worries that Starfield fans have got out of control.
I can’t imagine Microsoft is too happy with Bethesda at the moment. This was supposed to be Xbox’s big week. Its most important first party launch since the Xbox 360 era and it’s all gone a bit wrong. Starfield got a decent Metacritic score but most of the biggest sites were pretty down on it and it’s clear it’s not a game of the year contender or some new modern classic.
It my still be good – the reviews are very mixed – but it’s not really Starfield I’m interested in, so much as the actions of Bethesda and their fans. As you probably know, Bethesda refused to send an advance copy of the game to some, but not all, UK websites and YouTube channels.
That included several sites known for their tough reviews, such as Edge, Eurogamer, and GameCentral, but also others seemingly at random, including The Guardian and YouTube channels that don’t even do reviews. It was all very odd and while it was probably all about keeping the Metacritic score as high as possible, if that was the goal it was done in a very odd way.
The reaction amongst a sizeable proportion of Bethesda/Xbox fans was not anger that a publisher was trying to manipulate the press, and what was supposed to be a useful consumer guide, but that these sites deserved to be treated poorly for having the audacity to speak their mind during previous reviews.
In these fans’ minds Bethesda was entirely justified to play favourites, and give copies to one site but not another (they gave one to Digital Foundry but forbid them from sharing it with Eurogamer, for example). This was just punishment, in their eyes, for daring to have a negative opinion about an Xbox game.
To me, that is genuinely scary and disturbing. And, of course, it’s not because they’re Bethesda or Xbox fans. Sony fans would’ve done exactly the same thing if the situation had been reversed.
I don’t know what’s worse, the blind loyalty or the constant changes in their justifications, as new details were revealed and new reviews were published. They clearly expected Starfield was going to be 10/10s across the board and when that wasn’t the case suddenly IGN and GameSpot don’t count but some no-name site they’d never heard of before, that did give it 10/10, does.
It’s not healthy to think like this. It’s not healthy to devote yourself to a corporation whose only objective is to make money and it’s not healthy to hate the press because they puncture a hole in your weird fantasy about how good a game you’ve never played before is.
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What’s even worse is that after deriding the very concept of reviews they’ll then be the very first to complain when a game doesn’t work or is not what they expected, when they could’ve found that out, and saved themselves time and money, by reading a reliable review beforehand.
Although, the success of Starfield was never going to be influenced by reviews anyway. Most fans had pre-ordered months ago and everyone else is going to play it for no extra charge via Game Pass. It literally doesn’t matter at all, and yet Bethesda and their fans have managed to turn what is usually a simple process into a minefield of toxic behaviour, conspiracy theories, and vindictiveness.
By reader Angelcake
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
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A reader is disturbed by the whole Bethesda review controversy of the last week and worries that Starfield fans have got out of control.