Starfield is reportedly unlikely to release this year

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Reporter Jason Schreier offers his take on Starfield's release date

Starfield
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Starfield could be unlikely to launch this year, according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier.

In a recent AMA thread on Reddit, user secretgirl3 asked whether Schreier thought "Starfield is likely for a 2021 release?" The one-word response was a simple "nope," suggesting that Starfield could still be further off than many are hoping.

Schreier didn't offer any explanation for his lack of faith in a 2021 release, but the question did reference his past comments about the disruption that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused to the game development scene at large. A project as significant as this one, from a studio as big as Bethesda, is unlikely to come through that disruption entirely unscathed, so even if 2021 was the original plan, it's possible that that date has been pushed back.

It's worth noting that Schreier's comment isn't an official report and that Gamesbeat's Jeff Grubb recently stated that Bethesda was aiming to release Starfield in late 2021, a claim backed up by a similar report earlier in the year. 

That would be in-line with the company's recent releases - Fallout 76 was released in late October 2018, while Fallout 4 and Skyrim launched in November 2015 and 2011, respectively - as well as its practice of releasing games just a few months after their big reveals. Either way, it's worth waiting for official word from Bethesda, which means all eyes on Xbox's showcase at E3 2021.

With E3 on the horizon, here are some of the new games 2021 we're expecting to see more of.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.