Starfield Gets an Update Before It's Even Out

Summary

Bethesda has released the first-ever update for Starfield prior to its official release, benefiting players who have purchased higher-tier editions of the game.
The update, identified as version 1.7.23.0, is a sizable download of 13.4GB on PC and 15.5GB on Xbox Series X/S, possibly addressing high-priority bugs before the game's early access launch.
While historically Bethesda games have experienced buggy launches, Xbox Game Studios Head Matt Booty has promised that Starfield will have the fewest bugs of any Bethesda game.

Bethesda has pushed out its first Starfield update more than a week ahead of the game's September 6 release. Players who pay for one of the RPG's higher-tier editions will benefit from the patch as soon as Starfield hits early access on Friday, September 1.

Bethesda's AAA games historically received over a dozen official patches over the course of their life cycles. The company's last single-player RPG, Fallout 4, was treated to 17 such multi-platform updates and even more PC-specific ones, with the first of that lot arriving a day ahead of the game's official release. A similarly early patch for Starfield has now been spotted by some gamers who already preloaded the RPG.

The game's first-ever update, identified by version number 1.7.23.0, started rolling out on August 28. The patch weighs 13.4GB on PC and just under 15.5GB on the Xbox Series X/S. This release does not appear to add to Starfield's substantial install size but instead merely replaces some of its existing files. This update presumably includes fixes for high-priority bugs that the developer was yet to address by the time Starfield went gold in mid-August, but that's just speculation at this time.

The newly introduced update should be downloaded automatically on any system that already contains the Starfield preload. The first wave of preloads encompassing the Xbox Series X/S and Microsoft Store versions of the game went live on August 17, while Steam users will be able to download the Starfield preload starting August 30. Given the timing of this release, it's plausible that the patch will serve as the day-one update for the early access version of the space-fairing RPG. Based on the version histories of some other contemporary Bethesda titles such as Fallout 4 and TES: Skyrim - Special Edition, it is likely that this pre-release patch will be followed by another update in a matter of days or weeks.

While Bethesda's open-world RPGs historically had buggy launches that warranted intensive patching efforts from the Maryland-based developer, Starfield might finally break with that unenviable tradition. Xbox Game Studios Head Matt Booty recently suggested as much, having vowed that Starfield will have the fewest bugs of any Bethesda game ever made.

That notwithstanding, the state of Starfield's day-one build isn't expected to have a meaningful impact on the game's early adoption rate. After all, most of Bethesda's AAA role-playing games achieved instant success in spite of their buggy launches.