Bethesda Game Studios’ massive sci-fi RPG Starfield has seen the biggest QA period of any game from the Skyrim studio. However, the game’s promotional images still feature a healthy dose of that beloved Bethesda jank.
As spotted on Twitter, one of the main promotional images for Starfield prominently displays a huge visual glitch front-and-centre. Despite a two year delay to polish up the finished game, the massive RPG still has a few minor issues.
In the image, an enemy soldier is shown aiming down sights with his rifle. The sci-fi rifle features exquisite details from its stock to the foregrip the enemy should be holding to properly aim the weapon. However, the soldier isn’t grasping the foregrip at all.
Instead, as is expected for a Bethesda game, the enemy’s hand is holding onto nothing, shoving his hand right through the body of his weapon. While his trigger finger is perfectly placed, his steady hand is far away from where it should be.
However, for the most part, this slight issue bothers no one, and most gamers seem to be having a fun time with the glitchy promotional image. One fan even responded: “Bethesda is so fu**ing back!”
Buggy promotional images are nothing new in unreleased video games. Let’s not forget, Xbox’s Halo Infinite infamously showed promotional screenshots with a complete lack of lighting. Back on the Xbox 360, Perfect Dark’s infamous “wall guy” image also showed visual oddities that weren’t present after a delay. However, both of these games ended up being visually fine upon release.
Even with Starfield’s delays to spruce up visuals and fix errors, the game will undoubtedly have myriad bugs on launch — it’s inevitable with a game of this scope. Nevertheless, it is still funny to see the classic Bethesda jank return, even in the game’s promotional marketing.
Starfield releases on September 6th for Xbox Series X, S and PC. The game is available Day One on Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming.