The latest episode of the Triple Click podcast had hosts Kirk Hamilton, Maddy Myers, and Jason Schreier talk about their hopes, dreams, and fears for E3 2021, but Schreier had some firm news to report for Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG, Starfield. He confirmed an earlier rumor that Starfield would be on full display during the joint Xbox/Bethesda conference, but he went further to say that Microsoft will also bring out a release date.
“That is one game we will be getting a release date for,” affirmed Schreier, “and people I think will be surprised because it is a very specific release date that is way far out.”
How far out? “Late 2022,” he said, which is far enough away that one wonders how anyone could commit to such a long timeline during the pandemic age. We’ve had so many game delays over the past year and a half that any release date that’s not a few weeks away sounds absolutely meaningless.
But besides Starfield, Schreier said that Microsoft plans to showcase Halo Infinite with its own release date and Psychonauts 2 will also get a brief presentation. Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop might not get the attention that they once might have given that they’re both PlayStation exclusives from a time before Bethesda’s acquisition by Microsoft.
”Expect to hear Xbox Game Pass at least 400 times,” Schreier added. Microsoft recently announced plans to expand Game Pass with additional cloud-based options, including apps in browsers, Smart TVs, and subscriptions sold directly through telecom providers.
Schreier had a few words to spare for Ubisoft’s presentation as well. Far Cry 6 will be the showpiece for the French publisher, and he expects Ubisoft to completely ignore the sexual misconduct scandal that broke last year. There won’t be a new Assassin’s Creed announcement as Valhalla remains the focus for the next little while, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 is apparently still in “very, very early development” despite initially being announced at E3 2017.
E3 starts on June 12 with Ubisoft Forward at 12 PM PST.
