What’s going on with Starfield? Bethesda’s big Xbox exclusive is still the victim of a huge problem that spoils the experience for some players.
Even if it did not win any prizes at the 2023 Game Awards, Bethesda’s latest RPG, Starfield, marked the year 2023 and more particularly that of Microsoft. A game with great ambitions but which divided more than expected. While some were transported as rarely before, some remained on the sidelines, while others had an experience in between. Among the flaws, a few bugs further tarnish the space epic.
A bug that keeps crashing Starfield
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, recently argued that Starfield has all the qualities required to become the next Skyrim. A memorable title that will be played for decades, which will evolve over time and which will perhaps emerge on all platforms, including connected fridges. But above all it is a game that intends to improve with the help of the community and more specifically modders. Transformation whizzes who identified a very annoying problem.
This new Starfield bug, detected by Reddit users, causes the software to crash very frequently for some. A problem that occurs when you have a save with many hours of gameplay and without New Game Plus. The only way to get around it is apparently to continue with the feature enabled, which doesn’t sit well with players who just want to continue with their current save. A bug which is linked to a memory leak problem and which has its origins in the management of game objects.
Starfield – like other Bethesda games like Skyrim – uses identifiers to identify and locate objects, refer to planets, parts of the ship, etc. This method ensures that items that you have temporarily put aside do not disappear. The problem here is that the ID codes pile up and constantly increase the weight of the save, making it too heavy and unstable, instead of being reused for the creation of newer objects.
Wait! Bethesda teams take care of everything
As we can see, Starfield is therefore relatively unplayable for some. A very real bug which was commented on by a Bethesda CM. “The current implementation of the ID generation system does not work as it should. Old IDs are not recycled correctly and reused for newly created objects. In addition, with each new zone, a large number of IDs to designate objects appear. (via Reddit).
According to the information collected by the developers, the problem would occur much more often for those who have between 200 and 800+ hours of play.. “The team has become aware that some players are experiencing increased crashes, and increased instability after completion. This is a top priority. In this regard, I am happy to announce that an Xbox Series and PC fix will be included in the next update. For now, it is scheduled for next week. And we hope it solves this problem for many of you.” added the CM of Bethesda.
A message for players that contrasts with the latest messages. Last week, the publisher responded to criticism from some, but the way it was done was displeased. Various people felt that Bethesda was more into promoting their title, rather than hearing the pitfalls pointed out. An episode that should not happen again anytime soon.