Bethesda Game Studios’ massive sci-fi RPG Starfield offers a thousand planets to install, but its universal economy appears to be in absolute shambles.
As spotted by fans on the Starfield subreddit, the Skyrim studio’s new game has some rather wild economic issues that, in the real world, would be more than a cause for concern.
Fans noticed that the high price of a salami sandwich within the sci-fi galaxy is massive inflated. Either that, or the price of an entire spaceship fit for a crew is far less than anyone would expect.
As seen in the system-selling Starfield gameplay direct, the price of a single sandwich is a rather high 75 Credits. However, the price of one of the spaceships in the gameplay showcase is 7,375 Credits. That’s just 98 sandwiches!
Fans were also quick to point out that this isn’t the price of a nice sandwich freshly constructed at a fancy restaurant (Prét a Manger, maybe?). In fact, this is a second-hand sandwich that’s been laying on the side for who knows how long. On eBay, that sandwich would be “opened but unused”, which is not a great sell for timely goods.
However, the huge discrepancy between sandwiches and spaceships isn’t unexpected for Starfield. For starters, Bethesda game economies have always been weird, if not completely broken. (Who remembers the Limewire Platter?)
Since players absolutely need a spaceship to get around Starfield’s massive universe, the intergalactic vehicles need to be cheap. Furthermore, as players are confirmed to be able to commandeer enemy vessels, further eliminating the high price of ships in the world.
Starfield is genuinely looking like a generating-defining game for Bethesda Game Studios and Xbox. After two years of delays just to fix bugs and improve visuals, the colossal RPG is shaping up to be one of Bethesda’s best. Well, after Morrowind, that is.
Starfield launches on Xbox Series and PC on September 6th. Those who purchase the game’s pricey Constellation Edition will be able to play five days early on September 1st. The RPG also launches Day One on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.