Starfield was once rumoured to launch in 2017

It’s hard to believe that Starfield is finally upon us – the space RPG feels like it’s been known about for ages, but at one point it was set to be with us much sooner.

Over on the Starfield subreddit, a number of members of the community are remembering when the game was first just a twinkle in Todd Howard’s eye – with a release date as early as late 2017 when it was first rumoured back in 2015. This1Doesn’tMatter shared a tweet from that era with some of the early whispers from an account known as Tidux. “Bethesda has a new IP in development,” it reads. “Release late 2017. Space combat and planet exploration, not playable yet. It’s an action RPG.”

To give you some context, 2015 was just around the time of Fallout 4’s release – Fallout 76, Dishonored 2, even the reboot of Doom were still to come, and we were still quite some time away from Bethesda being acquired by Xbox. It’d be E3 2018 before the game was officially announced, of course, missing that 2017 prediction entirely. Ninjasaid13 puts the Starfield development timeline into some perspective “25 years as an idea, 10 years with a trademark, 8 years in production, 5 years since announcement, 2 years since teaser, 1 year since first gameplay, 3-4 months since deepdive and one day until launch.”

It’s been so long for many gamers, in fact, that they can barely remember where they were. “I wanted a BSG space game ever since I was a wee lad and played Daggerfall in the middle of the night,” says SilaryZeed. “And now it’s here, surreal moment after all these years.” Ironically, many people first heard of the game when waiting for information on the only Bethesda game that’s been in development longer than Starfield itself. “When they announced Elder Scrolls 6, but said that it will come out after this random game called ‘Starfield'” recounts Dreadington. “I hadn’t heard of this game before, but thought that the idea of a BGS game in space sounded cool. Then I was disappointed at the 2022 reveal. Then I got so excited again after the direct that I upgraded my PC.”

Thankfully there’s not much longer to wait now before Starfield is in our hands and on our consoles and PCs as the Starfield early access start time approaches. If you’re thinking of upgrading, you’ll want our picks for the best CPU for Starfield for high end and premium builds or our Best GPU for Starfield 2023 – our top picks.

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