Before the Holidays we reported that Starfield was due to get some major updates every six weeks or so. Bethesda’s end-of-year update said we could expect that to start in February but they would first be tested out in a beta branch on the Steam version of the game before being pushed to Xbox Live and other versions.

Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of the Steam beta updates, but a post on the Bethesda Game Studios X account stated, “We discovered an issue we want to address before releasing our update into the Steam Beta. We’re aiming to release it later this week but we’ll confirm the timing when we know for sure. Thanks for your patience!.”

This followed a post last week stating, “Next week, on January 17, we’ll be putting our biggest @StarfieldGame update yet into Steam Beta with over 100 fixes and improvements, with a planned release date for all players two weeks later.”

Further news followed a few hours later suggesting the issue has been resolved and that the update will be pushed out to Steam any time now. With the fix being so quick hopefully that means we may not even get a delay when it gets pushed through the main branch and other services besides Steam, meaning everybody gets to play the same version of the game sooner rather than later.

📢 Update: the issue has been resolved and the Steam Beta for our next update will be going live tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for the full patch notes when it opens!

— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) January 17, 2024

What does the Starfield update contain?

Bethesda says this first major update will include:

“This update contains a multitude of fixes to Quests. Eye of the Storm issues such as being unable to dock with the Legacy or data transfer not starting, and Temples not showing up in Into the Unknown, will no longer prevent Constellation from exploring the cosmos.

“Additionally, this update brings stability improvements and numerous graphic improvements ranging from additional widescreen support to improved textures, lighting, and shadows.

“Other fixes and improvements include sun disk geometry, planet ring shadows, bulldozed objects reappearing when returning to an Outpost, ship hatches marked inaccessible, and another fix for asteroids following ships.”

We have yet to get any full patch notes but we will pick through the best bits when they are finally released.

Paul McNally

Gaming Editor

Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title published by IDG Media. Having spent time as Head of Communications at a professional sports club and working for high-profile charities such as the National Literacy Trust, he returned as Managing Editor in charge of large US-based technology websites in 2020. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Pro, Amiga Action, Mega Action, ST Action, GQ, Loaded, and the The Mirror. He has also hosted panels at retro-gaming conventions and can regularly be found guesting on gaming podcasts and Twitch shows. He is obsessed with 3D printing and has worked with several major brands in the past to create content Believing that the reader deserves actually to enjoy what they are reading is a big part of Paul’s ethos when it comes to gaming journalism, elevating the sites he works on above the norm. Reach out on X.

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