Starfield – Xbox has a contender (Picture: Bethesda)

A reader is excited that Xbox has a game go up against Nintendo and PlayStation and implores fans not to attack it because of Microsoft.

This week probably took the edge off it a bit, with that crazy court case, but otherwise Xbox must be feeling pretty pleased with themselves right about now. The Xbox Games Showcase went great, and PlayStation’s went down terrible with everyone, and they’ve had no answer for it since (I would’ve sworn they’d have a second showcase to try and one-up Xbox, but nothing…). The most important thing though is that Xbox now have a game that people can be properly excited about, in the shape of Starfield.

People are excited for Fable and Clockwork Revolution, and all the others, but there’s no guarantee they’re going to be good, in many cases it’s not even really clear what the games are. But we’ve all played Skyrim or Fallout, so we know the basics of a Bethesda game – except this one lets you make cool spaceships and has graphics that don’t suck.

For the first time since the Xbox 360 era, Microsoft are in a position where people are talking about Starfield being game of the year, despite knowing relatively little about it. And that’s in the year in which arguably the best ever Zelda came out. Whether it’ll be judged better than that I don’t know, but it’s in the conversation and it has got to be the top-runner for best non-Nintendo game, especially after that so-so Spider-Man 2 trailer.

Of course, I don’t know for a fact the game is going to be good, but I can predict that it’s going to be and not sound like a fool, and that is a huge step forward for Microsoft. Especially as they’re doing it with a purely single-player game, which they seem to have gone out of their way to avoid for the last several years… for who knows what reasons.

I believe all this to be a fairly uncontroversial take. I certainly don’t know anyone that didn’t think Microsoft had a good showcase. And while I’ve heard some people grousing about Bethesda’s track record, the fact that Starfield is something new and ambitious has surely got to count for something, in my view.

And yet what it’s actually done is send half the internet crazy. The PlayStation half to be precise. In a way, though, I don’t blame them. Xbox has been absolutely no competition for more than a decade now, so for it to suddenly leap into life with a bunch of exciting looking games, at the exact moment that PlayStation has one of its worst years in a very long time, is quite the kicker.

As far as I can tell that’s just a coincidence, there’s no way Microsoft could’ve engineered that, but now everywhere you look online people are attacking Xbox, Bethesda, and Starfield in a way I haven’t really seen before (maybe it was like this in the Xbox 360 era, but I don’t think so).

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But can we just not? Let’s not belittle a game for trying to make an effort, just because it’s on a console you don’t own. I know it’s an exclusive that Microsoft just bought, which I agree sucks, but that doesn’t mean the game isn’t good and people haven’t worked hard on it.

I hope that Starfield will be treated fairly when it’s reviewed and that PlayStation fans won’t review bomb it or just generally drag on it. If it’s game of the year then I’d be over the moon because it would mean that all three consoles are now pumping out great games, and I feel that would be good for everyone. Hopefully it’ll encourage Sony to make even more effort and maybe something similar, so PlayStation can have its own Starfield.

By reader Gambon

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A reader is excited that Xbox has a game go up against Nintendo and PlayStation and implores fans not to attack it because of Microsoft.