Bethesda’s Pete Hines apologizes for Starfield exclusivity

In an interview with GameSpot, Bethesda senior vice president of marketing and communication Pete Hines has apologized for Starfield’s Xbox exclusivity. 

After Xbox acquired Bethesda and their parent company Zenimax, Starfield, along with many other future Bethesda titles, have unsurprisingly become exclusive to PC and the Xbox ecosystem. 

This obviously drew the ire of PlayStation fans who were eagerly looking forward to Bethesda’s latest IP, hoping it might be the last hurrah before complete Xbox ownership.

Speaking to GameSpot during their Play For All event, Pete Hines commented on this exclusivity saying that “I totally understand if you are unhappy or pissed or whatever. I get it. Those are all real feelings and frustrations.”

When it comes to a solution, unfortunately, Hines doesn’t have much in the way of an answer, as he went on to say “how should you deal with that? I haven’t the foggiest idea.” 

Deeper into the interview, Hines talked up the benefits of the Xbox ecosystem which is growing beyond just the consoles. Recently we’ve seen commitments from Xbox to bring Game Pass to more screens, giving the opportunity to play these titles without having to specifically own an Xbox console. 

“I don’t know how to allay the fears and concerns of PlayStation 5 fans, other than to say, I’m a PlayStation 5 player as well, and I’ve played games on that console, and there’s games I’m going to continue to play on it. But if you want to play Starfield. PC and Xbox. Sorry. All I can really say is, I apologize.”

Hines also spoke to the benefits of only developing for one platform, saying that when “you go to fewer platforms, your development gets more streamlined” Hines explained clearly. “You’re not worrying about well how does it work on this box versus how does it work on that box. We’re not making it on that box,” he continued, saying that a “narrow focus always helps” in development.

Starfield is set to launch on PC and in the Xbox ecosystem via Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Series X|S consoles on the 11th of November 2022.