CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer tweeted Thursday to address the recently announced Redfall and Starfield delays.
On May 12, Bethesda announced its decision to delay both Redfall and Starfield to the first half of 2023. While both titles could certainly still be prominent parts of the upcoming Bethesda and Xbox showcase event coming in June, delivering full-blown gameplay deep dives of each for the first time, many fans have expressed disappointment now that their releases have been pushed back a year.
"These decisions are hard on teams making the games and our fans," Spencer tweeted. "While I fully support giving teams time to release these great games when they are ready, we hear the feedback. Delivering quality and consistency is expected, we will continue to work to better meet those expectations."
Starfield was previously slated to launch on November 11, 2022, while Redfall was scheduled for a September 2022 release. As with all first-party Xbox and Bethesda games these days, both are expected to launch directly into Xbox Game Pass on day one.
Both of those tentative dates were announced at last year's Xbox and Bethesda showcase.
In an interview with The Washington Post at the time, Bethesda Game Studios executive producer Todd Howard described Starfield as "Skyrim in space," and mentioned, "Weâre confident in the date. Otherwise, we wouldnât be announcing it."
Redfall is being developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and, like Starfield, is intended to be exclusively released for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC.