Starfield’s biggest update yet has been delayed by a few days
Steam Beta launch had been planned to land today
A massive update for Starfield, cramming in over 100 fixes and other improvements, has been delayed. Originally due to hit Steam’s beta branch today, January 17th, the patch is now expected to arrive later this week - but Bethesda aren’t sure exactly when, just yet.
The update, said to be the biggest yet for the sci-fi RPG, was announced last week. Among the dozens of bug fixes and tweaks will be a number of fixes for quests, including quests such as Eye of the Storm and Into the Unknown getting stuck at particular points.
Other small fixes address things including shadows for planet rings, bulldozed objects reappearing in outposts and asteroids following ships, which is a funny little bug that made me think of those fish that swim alongside whales (but in an interstellar sense) and made me wish you could drag asteroids behind your ship by choice using a gravitational drive or something, like tying tin cans to a car’s bumper.
As well as bug fixes, the patch promises better stability and a variety of graphical improvements, including better textures, lighting and shadows, but also expanded support for widescreen displays.
A complete list of patch notes was due to land with the update today, but will now presumably arrive when the patch actually launches for real. Bethesda put the last-minute delay down to “discover[ing] an issue we want to address” before putting the patch out, with exact timing on the release yet to be confirmed but expected to be later this week.
The megapatch will kick off Bethesda’s plans to update Starfield every six weeks from next month onwards, promising major additions such as mod support, new travel methods, expanded ship customisation options, more granular difficulty settings and city maps. Starfield’s first expansion, Shattered Space, is also due to arrive later in 2024.