Eurogamer is reporting that access to review copies of Starfield has been “heavily restricted” in the UK, fueling speculation among critics that the highly anticipated space-faring RPG from Bethesda Game Studios and Todd Howard may not be as great as some might have anticipated. According to one of the site’s editors, the publication has been bugging Bethesda for a review copy for “the past two weeks,” but nobody cared to send anything until today, which, coincidentally, saw the release of an article about how only some outlets have been receiving the game. Starfield should be playable as early as this Friday, September 1, for those who own one of the Premium Editions with early access.
Access to the game appears to have been heavily restricted in the UK, where Bethesda has also not provided copies of Starfield to other websites and YouTube channels owned by Eurogamer parent company Reedpop. Meanwhile, some other UK outlets have been provided access through Bethesda’s US arm.
Throughout the past two weeks, since copies of the game were made available to the media, I’ve spent hours trying to discuss the issue with Bethesda, and the matter has been repeatedly flagged to both Bethesda and Microsoft at senior levels.