After years of hype, Starfield is finally available on PC, console, and mobile if you’re willing to put up with streaming. However, the intensive next-gen RPG is bringing some gamers’ rigs to their knees, and Todd Howard has some helpful advice for them: upgrade.
In a reader Q&A segment with Bloomberg, Todd Howard was asked why Starfield is so unoptimised on PC. The game’s creative director fired back, claiming it isn’t unoptimised, and that sometimes you’ll just need to pay up and spec up.
Howard explained that Starfield is not a game designed for old systems, hence its absence on Xbox One hardware. Instead, it’s an incredibly intensive game designed with next-gen hardware in mind, and that’s likely why the game performs poorly on some systems.
When asked “why did you not optimise this game for PC”, Howard responded: “Uh, we did. It’s a next-gen PC game. We really do push the technology so you may need to upgrade your PC for this one, but there’s a tonne of really great stuff in it and the fans are responding awesomely.”
Starfield is an incredibly CPU intensive game due to its incredibly object permanence and massive physics calculations. While some of the best Starfield mods such as the Starfield DLSS mod can help to boost performance, it really is a next-gen focused experience. If you’re experiencing graphics card errors and audio issues, that may be the game’s fault, though.
Unfortunately, Howard is right, some games just require you to upgrade or move to console in order to play them at solid framerates. In 2007, we needed to upgrade to play Oblivion, in 2015 Fallout 4 required strong CPUs. With Starfield being one of the most optimised Bethesda games in years, it truly is just time to pick up some new hardware.
With brilliant combat, the ability to make some truly wacky ships and some of the best quest lines Bethesda has ever produced, Starfield is a game worth upgrading for. At least in this writer’s opinion.
Starfield is available right now on Xbox Series and PC.