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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.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'll trust M$ on that. Not that it's saying much considering the state of Bethesda's past games.

 

[FAST6191]

I'll trust M$ on that. Not that it's saying much considering the state of Bethesda's past games.

Is a reply other than modern windows operating systems needed?

 

[hippy dave]

Every game ships with bugs they know about. You have to release the game sometime.

True, but how about releasing it when it doesn't have bugs you know about?

 

[HarveyHouston]

Microsoft Game Studios head Matt Booty

I couldn't get past this part without laughing a little bit.

Here's hoping, for Bethesda's sake, that it doesn't end up being another Cyberpunk 2077 situation.

 

[thekarter104]

Can Microsoft claim they have a really buggy Windows 11 and too strict system requirements forcing people to fork out cash for a new PC/Laptop which many people can't get especially just for that reason?

Microsoft, first look at yourself before claiming on others. Kthxbye.

 

[duwen]

Microsoft Game Studios head Matt Booty has tempted fate by claiming that Starfield will launch with fewer bugs than any other Bethesda game.​

That's a bit like saying COVID killed less people than AIDS

 

[FAST6191]

True, but how about releasing it when it doesn't have bugs you know about?

That could fall under unreasonable requirements, and more likely to just stop bugs being found, searched for properly, reported or recorded.

At a minimum bugs would be classified by severity and likelihood to be activated (standard risk assessment protocol), it makes little sense to chase down or fix something that might be caused by standing unmoving looking at a wall for 40000 hours. That is also before the subjective nature of some things, or even better ways of handling it (cows farming in Witcher being one people tend to point at as a good fix), gets involved.
Open world game makes this harder as you don't just have 10 scripted levels to run through on rails and instead get to account for any number of play styles.

 

[TomSwitch]

Little lies, stunning shows, people buy, money flows...

It wasn't lie, just empty words that has practically no meaning. Less bug means nothing. I can tell you my release has no known bugs, don't mean a thing. So what if I don't know about the bugs, it does not mean it's not there, it's just unknown to me. Who can tell how many bugs are there, only gods know, he don't.

Wait, maybe Skynet2 would know, but you have to wait until Judgement day to know it.

 

[codezer0]

Bethesda and bugs are like histamines to a asthmatic kid. You cant have one without the other.

Microsoft should have just nuked the whole team if they wanted a clean slate to make a solid game out of it.

 

[Kevbo]

Fallout 76, was a terrible, terrible disaster of a game. I just want them to learn from it. No claims, No promises just knowledge of what they have done wrong and how they can fix it. Then maybe we might get a good finished product.

 

[eduall]

who have a Xbx ???

 

[8BitWonder]

Saying it will have fewer bugs than their games usually do as a selling point somehow doesn't fill me with confidence.

 

[linuxares]

So how about fix Redfall then?

 

[AdenTheThird]

It wasn't lie, just empty words that has practically no meaning. Less bug means nothing. I can tell you my release has no known bugs, don't mean a thing. So what if I don't know about the bugs, it does not mean it's not there, it's just unknown to me. Who can tell how many bugs are there, only gods know, he don't.

Wait, maybe Skynet2 would know, but you have to wait until Judgement day to know it.

It was a joke

 

[LeNoobio]

That painful moment when my coffee shoots out my nose

 

[BaamAlex]

Day-One-Patch incoming...

Fewest bugs...man did i laugh.

 

[bahamut920]

This is somehow both a low bar and a tall order simultaneously.

 

[skribbzthepirate]

HAHAHAHA MATT BOOTY

 

[Axido]

"It will have less bugs than any Bethesda game release so far. Trust us. We already went the extra mile of counting them."

 

[TomSwitch]

"It will have less bugs than any Bethesda game release so far. Trust us. We already went the extra mile of counting them."

The number of bugs comes to him in a divine vision.