November has been a busy month for game releases, and if Bethesda had pushed ahead with its Starfield plans, the month would have been even busier with the release of Starfield. The game, alongside Arkane’s Redfall, were eventually delayed into 2023, and according to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, that was the right decision to make.
“We have experience shipping games too early, but in hindsight when you look at a game like Starfield, which has taken so long and so much investment in new IP from the team, the decision to give the team the time to build the game that they feel they should be building is just the right thing to do,” Spencer said to The Verge.
According to Spencer, Microsoft wanted to make certain that Bethesda and Arkane could deliver the best games possible, as Starfield and Redfall will be the first true Xbox console-exclusive releases following the $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax. “I just wanted to make sure those teams felt that they had the support they could get from Xbox. Maybe feel some of the benefit of being part of a larger organization that has other revenue streams and other things going on that could be helpful.”