Xbox head Phil Spencer spotted playing ‘Starfield’

17 July, 2023

Phil Spencer – CEO of Microsoft Gaming – is one of the few that are able to play Starfield ahead of the hoi polloi, though they’re seen not to be scoring any achievements in the sci-fi RPG.

That will likely to be down to the fact that Starfield is in a phase where Bethesda‘s quality assurance testers are scouring this most recent build for bugs and reporting their recordings to the rest of the team. Spencer was spotted by fans playing Starfield through the social side of the Xbox Live app which shows which games are popular with friends. Bethesda’s senior vice president Pete Hines is also getting to grips with the game.

Phil Spencer & Pete Hines are playing Starfield in Xbox
by u/cyberRakan in Starfield

As both of them have public profiles on Xbox Live, players have the option to follow them and track what they’re interacting with on their PC or console. Starfield‘s launch is less than two months away and the excitement for the game is reaching higher and higher heights, especially with this admission that executives are able to play it in its present form.

While there is some time to wait, fans have gotten glimpses of what to look forward to in Starfield. Bethesda Game Studios executive producer Todd Howard said it is essentially “like Skyrim in space,” however, players should expect a “more hardcore” experience.

“We like to put you in a world where we’re not dragging you by the nose and saying you must do X, Y and Z, and that it’s okay for you to want to test the [game’s boundaries],” added Howard in another interview.

Players will also be able to tailor their combat strategy to their preferences, with skills spread across Physical, Social, Combat, Science and Tech trees. A standard first-person shooter set up is possible, but in the Starfield Direct, Bethesda showed off an ability that lets the hero telepathically talk to aliens and a punching skill reminiscent of One-Punch Man.

In other gaming news, the Oxfordshire teenager who is accused of leaking Grand Theft Auto 6 footage has been deemed unfit to stand trial.

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