Starfield "doesn't even run properly" and is "unplayable" on PS5, report fans requesting refunds from Sony: "Classic Bethesda"

Although Bethesda Game Studios had Starfield fans excited for its big PlayStation 5 release, its launch isn't going well for some from a performance point of view – players have spent the last few days reporting various bugs and crashes while trying to enjoy Starfield on PS5, and they're not happy.

Look, I'll be the first to admit that Bethesda is no stranger to rough releases – heck, Skyrim on Switch 2 is just one recent example, with plenty before it. I love the studio's RPGs, but it doesn't have the best track record regarding game and platform launches… and Starfield on the PS5 (and Pro, for that matter) sadly offers no exception.

Folks have taken to forums like Reddit to report as much, dubbing the new port "unplayable" currently.

Base PS5 crashing getting out of hand, its unplayable from r/Starfield

"I'm getting crashes every two minutes," one player admits. "Tried everything. Deleted saves. Tried performance 30 and 60 FPS. Deleted the game and redownloaded it. And it's still happening. Every other game is working fine, and I never had any crashes. It's just Starfield. This is not acceptable. They should refund us!"

Commenters see others agree, disappointedly writing, "Classic Bethesda" – including people on the PS5 Pro.

"Saving is completely broken too; it'll just randomly come up and say 'unable to create save game,'" one person adds. Another says they're "getting tired of this." It's understandable, honestly. I play on PC myself, but it's evident the PS5 version – an edition many were looking forward to as Starfield was previously only available on Xbox and PC – isn't, erm, great. And that's an understatement.

Players are even saying it's crashing literal minutes after loading.

"I heard Starfield was having problems on PS5, and I wanted to test it for myself," as a fan reports. "The game crashed on me six minutes into the tutorial."

Elsewhere in another post, a game developer interviewer argues, "This right here is why the Switch 2 version of Starfield will probably be canceled. The game doesn't even run properly on a PS5 Pro." I can't see a Switch 2 port going any better, either, personally… especially after the mess that was Skyrim.

I mean, sure, Bethesda technically remedied that, and I've been playing the 2011 RPG on the Switch 2 myself since, but it's far less demanding of a game… and Starfield is already clearly not doing well on a more capable console. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Todd Howard says that Starfield's New Game Plus was "us asking you this weird, deep question that I actually think got lost on a lot of people"