Originally scheduled for a November (i.e. 11) 11 release which would coincide with Skyrim's 11th anniversary, Bethesda have delayed their sci-fi roleplaying game, Starfield to 2023.

Joining it is Arkane's first person shooter vampire game, Redfall.

For the benefit of anyone not in the know, Arkane and Bethesda are both owned by Zenimax, who was last year acquired by Microsoft.

Their tweet cites the standard and reasonable cause - polish:

The teams at Arkane Austin (Redfall) and Bethesda Game Studios (Starfield) have incredible ambitions for their games and we want to ensure that you receive the best, most polished versions of them.

Starfield may legitimately require the delay but it is remarkable in relation to Ubisoft's announcement that they're aiming for a Q4 release for their open world sci-fi game, Frontiers of Pandora.

This would have put have the games squarely in competition with each other, and Starfield without the benefit of association with an imminent and long-awaited sequel to the world's highest grossing film.

Bethesda have also earned themselves a bad reputation for aggressive monetization in multiple games.

They haven't yet spoken about their monetization plans for Starfield but Pandora's publisher Ubisoft is similarly aggressive.

While the industry seems to be trending away from aggressive monetization, Avatar is a big deal and Ubisoft could seek to cash in. Spectacularly.

It might make sense to allow Pandora to go first, see how it's monetized and reactions to that, before committing to a business model for Starfield.

Starfield is now slated for a 2023 Q1 or Q2 release on PC and Xbox.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is aiming for Q4 this year on PC, Xbox and Playstation.

[ Main Image: Starfield. Credit: Bethesda via Steam. ]

References

Bethesda [@bethesda] (May 12, 2022). An update on Redfall and Starfield. Twitter.

Wikipedia. List of highest-grossing films. (viewed May 13, 2022)