Bethesdan Starfield julkaistiin syyskuun alussa 2023, ja Metacriticin lukema asettui 83, ja Opencriticin lukemaan 84. Käyttäjäarviot ovat olleet armottomampia.
Bethesdan mies Todd Howard on kommentoinut pelinsä saamaa vastaanottoa Kinda Funnyn haastattelussa. Howard myöntää, ettei monen odotuksiin saatu vastatuksi.
"But obviously, look, we see the feedback, we see a lot of players saying, this is what I want out of a Bethesda game, which is to explore a world in a certain way and Starfield didn't give me that, I prefer the way it's done in Fallout or Elder Scrolls. And perfectly understandable right, in terms of, hey this is a different experience."
Osa pelin suunnitteluratkaisuista johtuu odotetusti siitä, että mukana on niin paljon planeettoja tutkittavaksi.
"I do think, for us, particularly me going into a science fiction game, I want to be able to land on all the planets, I want the game to say yes to us knowing that that content is going to be different than you've seen from us in the past when you're exploring a landscape. And that's some of the trade-offs we'll make to do what we think makes a science fiction game like this, that's based in this kind of fiction and reality, to make it what it should be. Each of the franchises should be its own thing.