Starfield at gamescom: Todd Howard and Phil Spencer Introduce Never-Before-Seen Gameplay 

Xbox’s biggest-ever gamescom booth opened this morning with a special presentation focused on – what else? – Starfield. Attendees began their experience at gamescom with a long-awaited look at Bethesda Game Studios’ new, highly-anticipated spacefaring RPG. The Xbox head Phil Spencer made a surprise guest appearance along with the game director on StarfieldTodd Howard has introduced the game today to creators, the media and the public. 

“It’s totally awesome to be back at gamescom,” began Spencer. “It’s been so long, I couldn’t remember the last time I was here, I think it was 2017… It’s nice to see everybody back here at gamescom having a great time.” 

The Head of Xbox went onto dive into why this is Xbox’s biggest ever booth, with over 50,000 square feet of floor space, 30 playable games, 150 demo stations, and multiple theatre spaces. Spencer then introduced some of first-party game titles at the show. Towerborne The following are some examples of how to get started: Forza MotorsportHe gave a special shout-out to titles from third parties. He also gave special recognition to STALKER 2.The audience applauded for the amazing work that the Ukrainian team of developers did. 

“I’m going to introduce someone who’s been a friend of mine for an awful long time,” he continued, “a friend of Xbox’s for an awful long time. But more importantly, someone who’s created some of the most amazing games, that literally tens of millions, of not hundreds of millions of players have played his games over the years. 

“Two things when Todd talks about Starfield: ‘Over 25 years in the making’, which isn’t the development schedule – that’s how long Bethesda Games Studios has been around. And he also calls it ‘irresponsibly large’. For those who begin to play and see what he and the team have been building, you’ll see just a massively epic game, so please join me in welcoming Todd Howard to the stage.” 

Howard then took to the microphone, receiving a roaring applause. “This is the first time I have ever been to Gamescom,” he began. “I’ve heard about it for so many years, and what an incredible group of people come out. 

“Thanks for all of your support – to the games that we’ve done over the years, and especially on this one. We have really poured ourselves into it for a long period of time, and it’s just a really, really special game to us. 

“The other thing to say is how great it’s been to be part of Xbox – coming here and seeing this giant booth and their support. Like Phil was saying, we’ve known each other for a long time, we started working together over 20 years on the original MorrowindOn the Xbox. So it’s been this long journey, and it feels like… culminating on a game like this, that I think in many ways we couldn’t have built without doing these other games. So we hope you like it!” 

We settled down for another 15 minutes. StarfieldThe trailers are a mix of live action and gameplay, with the highlight being a longer gameplay segment that will only be shown at Gamescom. 

The booth itself is dressed in a navy blue galaxy map design, and even the holding screen before the event ran through some key terms from the game, from the Grav Drives that allow explorers to jump between star systems, to the background of the United Colonies’ capital city, New Atlantis. The impact of the musical score and visuals in this theater offer a good reminder: you’re going to want to experience Starfield on the biggest, loudest screen you can. 

What better way to showcase the game’s opening than revealing it? We’re introduced to the game amid a mining operation, where we see the player-character thrown immediately into the mystery at the heart of the game – and we saw a high-speed runthrough of the character creation process to establish a new member of the explorers’ group, Constellation. 

As an opening to the game, it has a bit of everything – both on-foot and space combat, companions, threats, and even a trademark Bethesda “step-out moment”. Our time with Starfield ends as key character Sarah Morgan introduces herself by saying, “Welcome to Constellation – we have a lot to talk about.” Yes, we very much do. 

Thankfully, you won’t have long to see it for yourself – Starfield Pre-orders will allow early access to the game starting September 1 (with Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass).|S and PC (with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass). 

We’re off to a great start from Cologne, Germany! Xbox Wire will be updating this and the following week with news about many of gamescom’s biggest games.