When is Starfield gameplay trailer coming?

Starfield releases in November this year (image via Starfield Twitter)
Starfield releases in November this year (image via Starfield Twitter)

It has been nearly four years since Starfield was officially announced. The game's launch is slated for November 11, 2022, seven months away.

The release date was deliberately set to foil Skyrim, Bethesda Game Studio's de facto primary bread earner, which hit the shelves on 11.11.11. It was perhaps the most memorable release date of gaming history.

It is highly unlikely for Bethesda to fall back on any setbacks or delays that stray away from the promised launch date.

Half a year away from launch, we can assume the game development is nearing completion towards a finished product. Yet, we will see a single hint of what Starfield gameplay will be like. The great restraint Bethesda has shown thus far has understandably led some fans to cynicism about the state of gameplay behind closed doors.

However, it makes sense for Bethesda to play their cards so close to their chest regarding gameplay. Furthermore, Bethesda will find numerous significant opportunities for their big reveal in the upcoming months.


There may be a Starfield gameplay reveal this June

The closest equivalent to Starfield we have in marketing is Fallout 4. Like Starfield, it was a reasonably big leap in terms of Creation Engine tech for the studio, and it also shares some of its sci-fi leanings.

As we can gauge from Fallout 4 promo material, Bethesda has been reliant on creating quick hype through condensed ad campaigns, which is six months in this case.

However, the stark contrast here is that Fallout was already a well-established franchise with a steady fanbase from over a decade of different games. Unlike Elder Scrolls or Fallout,

Starfield is a brand-new intellectual property. It is Bethesda's first in nearly 20 years. This puts in perspective their announcement four years prior to the projected release date.

For this duration, Bethesda has drip-fed its budding community tidbits and perspectives on what the game is all about.

youtube-cover

Another big reason we can point at is the design team's focus on exploration and non-granular aspects of game design rather than refinements like combat.

For months, the developer's diaries have been teasing to impart their new world's design philosophy. These featurettes, by and large, set up the foundation for a more familiar substantial Bethesda ad campaign.

Taking away the dev diary fluff, the showcase of hands-on gameplay will likely be restricted to the six-month period we have seen with Fallout 4. This just so happens to align with some big gaming events, or at least it would, had E3 not been canceled this year.

In its wake, however, we will still have the Summer Game Fest, where the presence of most big-league game developers outlets has been confirmed.

In the upcoming Summer Game Fest, fans can see a great deal about Character Creation and the improved dialogue system. Bethesda would like to put out regular gameplay content for Todd Howard's walk-in on the big stage livestream. They also want to show off the improvements in Creation Engine 2, a significant talking point in their developer diaries.

Between the Summer fest in June and the upcoming Quakecon this year in August, we will also likely see a lot of exploration, combat, and manual space flight.