Bethesda pushes back Starfield and Redfall's releases to 2023

Publisher Bethesda Softworks has officially delayed two of its biggest upcoming game releases, Redfall and Starfield, to early 2023. The shocking announcement comes straight from Bethesda's official Twitter account on 12th May 2022.

The news of Redfall and Starfield's delay comes days after Xbox confirmed its big summer event, Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, where many hope to see more gameplay footage for Redfall and Starfield. While it hasn't been made clear whether or not the games will still be featured at the gaming showcase, the news is still a massive blow to fans worldwide.

Redfall and Starfield delay is shocking but not surprising

Bethesda first revealed Starfield's release date as 11th November 2022, over a year and a half before its eventual release during the joint E3 presentation in 2021. Despite the recent announcement, delays to AAA game releases have become increasingly common, especially during an ongoing global pandemic, so this isn't that surprising.

We've seen a handful of AAA games that had committed to a release date too early and were eventually delayed over the last few years. Games like Halo Infinite, Dying Light 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 are prime examples of this, the latter of which was released in a broken and unoptimised state.

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Redfall and Starfield's delay isn't far-fetched, especially since we haven't had much gameplay footage since E3 2021. Regardless, they were two of the biggest game releases for the second half of 2022, and their delays will have rippling effects across the games industry and the Xbox brand in particular.

The impact of Redfall and Starfield's delay on Xbox's 2022 lineup

It's no surprise that Redfall was supposed to be Xbox's biggest summer exclusive title, whereas Starfield was supposed to fill that shoes for Xbox during 2022's holiday season. With both games being pushed out of 2022, the big question remains whether Xbox has to offer over 12 million Xbox Series X/S owners this year.

The Xbox ecosystem has had an achingly long void of AAA first-party single-player games, something that the PlayStation brand has continuously invested in over the last few years. Starfield was supposed to be Xbox's first step towards redemption this holiday season, but the delay could spell trouble for the brand.

PlayStation's biggest Fall/Holiday Season 2022 title, God of War Ragnarok, has not been officially delayed, so they have an advantage over Xbox in big AAA exclusive releases in the latter half of 2022. Without Redfall and Starfield, Xbox's 2022 lineup seems shockingly empty compared to when Xbox had a pretty strong lineup in 2021, with Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite.

Forza Horizon 5 will continue to get updates throughout 2022, and Halo Infinite Season 3 will launch in November. Even so, Xbox needs more first-party games to fill this calendar year, the likes of which are notably missing at the time of this writing.

We may get brand new game announcements for this year from Xbox and Bethesda at their upcoming Games Showcase, but fans may have to wait a little longer to find out.

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Featured image courtesy of Bethesda Softworks.