470°

Starfield Passes 11 Million Players; Sets Record of Most New Game Pass Subscriptions on Launch Day

Starfield has passed 11 million players and has set a record of new Game Pass subscribers on its launch day as Microsoft's CEO details the performance of the Xbox business.

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techraptor.net
sparky77221d ago

Starfield really is a massive success, likely the biggest new IP release for the entire gen.

-Mika-221d ago

Facts. I just saw earlier that the game was the #1 selling game in Canada for the month of October and even as of this moment, it is the 6th most played game on Xbox. Like I said in a previous post, You can't ever say this game was a flop. It might have underperformed critically but it has performed well commercially.

EvertonFC221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

GP numbers stayed stagnant, so not a commercial success at all.
Plus day1 with GP then all of a sudden it's £35 for 1 week early access, you couldn't make this shit up and 2million sheep lapped it up 🤣😂 🐑🐑

VenomUK221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

‘Most new subscriptions on launch day’ without numerical context, actual figures, is meaningless.

Starfield had been hyper anticipated for years, the cheapest method to access and play it is with Game Pass - so that this game has a been a bigger draw than Forza Horizon 5 and the scaled back Halo Infinite is not a surprise. Halo Infinite’s launch, might’ve led to ten new subscriptions and Starfield, just eleven. Of course it won’t be as low as that but without Microsoft giving a number it raises questions as to if the number is not impressive.

11 million players needs defining. It suggest people are regular players of the game, when it likely means people who have launched the game once. If Microsoft does not include an asterisk to define what players are then that’s what it means.

Two weeks after launch 25% of players had quit before the first achievement that marks the players first trip to space. https://www.trueachievement... It’s likely more players did stop playing but the next in-game milestone meaning that it won’t be a consistent draw for people who don’t enjoy the genre.

Two weeks after its number one debut in the UK charts and it’s dropped out of the top ten. Suggesting there was built up demand and that some players wanted physical copies, however the game’s sales does not have legs.

This needs to be said, not to insult the quality of Starfield, but to understand the actual level of its success.

ChasterMies221d ago

Fact, Spider-Man 2 is already the top selling game for October. Not so much fact as opinion, but I think 6th most played on Xbox Live is kind of a bad stat for a game with so much hype. When Halo 4 dropped out of the top 5 on Major Nelson’s Xbox Live activity report, Major Nelson stopped reporting Xbox Live activity.

Crows90221d ago

A success isn't the 6th most played game. Sorry

InUrFoxHole221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

@EvertonFC
Agreed man... $35 to play a new game? They could've paid $70... what a bunch of clowns 🤡! Well done sir 👏

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 221d ago
-Foxtrot221d ago

Or maybe people would rather just buy Gamepass for a month to try it than actually paying full price for it.

How many of these, once finished will autorenew?

sparky77221d ago

Who knows or cares doesn't take away from the success of Starfield.

-Foxtrot221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

@itsmebryan

Nothing salty about it, just pointing out a more logical way looking at it

I get it, you're digging into "personal attack" territory because you literally have no counter argument to present

@sparky77

You make a comment, you present it as fact, someone (me) gives you an alternate take and your response is "I don't care" then you proceed to commit to it.

Wow....

darthv72221d ago

@fox, if people play it for a month or a day... playing is playing. And that means engagement, and engagement means $$ to the shareholders (which none of us are so who gives a turkey).

JackBNimble221d ago

That's why subbed for extra until Sony raised the price for 30%.
Is there something wrong with seeing if you like a game through Gamespass or ps+ before committing to a purchase?

343_Guilty_Spark221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

MSFT is betting with more studios the content will keep flowing. Now the quality needs to improve but I think Starfield is a step in the right direction.

But the game is a success and you can’t deny it. Just embrace it.

Lightning77221d ago

Who cares how ppl consume the game. You'll find any little opening or excuse to take jabs at the game. Instead of just saying congrats. Did you find a way to diss Spider-man 2 success? No you didn't. For once In a single year Sony, MS and Nintendo are doing great this time around. Just live with it and move the hell along.

Hofstaderman221d ago

@Darth, playing is NOT paying. The model is not sustainable. Its a failing trojan horse. Seems like people only renew to play big releases. This hurts those very releases.
MS is in a corner and they know it.

Terry_B221d ago

How many of them played it even for more than 30 minutes? ;-)

Chevalier221d ago

https://metro.co.uk/2023/10...

https://www.forbes.com/site...

Interesting. They just confirmed Xbox missed a 3rd straight year and also now confirmed they will no longer give out Gamepass numbers as well. Kind of like how when Xbox One was failing they stopped giving hardware numbers. So just more smoke and mirrors

Vithar221d ago

what i did, gamepass for 1 month, finished Starfield, cancelled

Zeref221d ago

Yall made this argument when gamepass was at 3 million subs and still doing it at 30 million lol at what point are yall just gonna admit GamePass is the best deal in gaming?

lilmikey2011221d ago

so what. it means people wanted to play it

+ Show (10) more repliesLast reply 221d ago
LucasRuinedChildhood221d ago

Elden Ring was bigger. It sold 12 million in 2 weeks.

sparky77221d ago

That's last gen I am talking about this generation only.

darthv72221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

@sparky, ER was last year, not last gen. Plus it was on 5 platforms (crossgen). SF was on 2 (3 if you count cloud).

MrNinosan221d ago

Starfield didn't SELL 11 million.
It got 11 million installs.

Elden Ring SOLD 12 million in 2 weeks.
FFXVI SOLD 5 million in 3 days.
Spider-Man 2 SOLD more than 2.5 million in 24 hours.

Big difference counting actual sales compared to installs from a rental service.

343_Guilty_Spark221d ago

How much is it selling now?

People have moved on to the next big thing. If Starfield is anything like Skyrim people will be playing it for the next 10 years especially with mods.

Christopher221d ago

***That's last gen I am talking about this generation only. ***

Ridiculous. Just ridiculous.

LucasRuinedChildhood221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

@Christopher
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Sparky forgot about Elden Ring and its success and then just didn't want to admit that he's wrong. lol

@MrNinosan
I almost wrote "sold" as "SOLD" to make that point and now I regret not doing it. :(

Yeah, there is a big difference between sales and players.

That being said, I think the sales for Starfield are still good because of the PC players. The Steam sales seem to at least 5 million. https://steamspy.com/app/17... Then most of the remaining players likely played it on GamePass.

badz149221d ago

@343

"If Starfield is anything like Skyrim people will be playing it for the next 10 years especially with mods."

SOME people still keep playing but it's not showing in the sale charts. which means just the same people already had the game playing it over and over with mods. Please don't even try to make it sound like it's doing anything impressive like GTA5 or Minecraft or MK8 which have consistently been in the charts for 10 years!

MrNinosan221d ago

@LucasRuinedChildhood
Nah, Starfield has not sold close to 5 million on Steam.
The data for Owners you see on Steamspy has always, and will always be extremely wrong.

CyberPunk 2077 has sold 20-50 million according yo Steamspy, which we know by facts ain't the case.

Starfield has probably not reached a million on Steam.

PrinceOfAnger221d ago

Elden ring is also on playstation
But Starfield only on Xbox pc

Elden ring sold more than spider man 2 ?.

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 221d ago
Gamingsince1981221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

11million people played starfield for free on gamepass and that's classed as a success 🤣 ok guys ....ok and looking at the stats, of those 11 million , about 2 million left the first area, so that's a massive drop on people not caring to play anymore. Sounds like a massive flop and would have flopped harder if it was not on ganepass ouch

Christopher221d ago

That 'new IP' bit tries to elevate this way higher than it belongs. It's pretty much a space version of their other games, but because it's called something else and isn't in an existing IP, it's good! Let's ignore that it has sold worse than the higher rated RPG from an Indie studio. It matters because it's a new IP!

LucasRuinedChildhood221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

Yeah, Earth in Starfield was even going to be the one from Fallout at one point. https://www.purexbox.com/ne... And the new IP I brought up (Elden Ring) is basically Dark Souls 4.

Not many new IPs in general from big studios anymore just like the film industry. It's sad.

I would say that Returnal and Hi-Fi Rush are the best new IPs this gen. Wish we got way more unique games like that from big development studios.

As far as new IPs go, I'm looking forward to Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog and Sony Bend's unannounced new IPs on the PlayStation side and for Clockwork Revolution and Avowed from Xbox.

notachance221d ago

Hogwarts Legacy sold 12 millions in the first two week but we all know you’re not here to actually talk about “biggest new IP this gen”

Lightning77221d ago

State Of Play type of event coming tomorrow also. Hopefully some good stuff and maybe a day one drop.

Terry_B221d ago

You and obscure observer are the laughing stock of n4g, thanks a lot for the entertainment :-)

andy85221d ago

I really hope you mean 'on xbox'

221d ago
ChasterMies221d ago

“likely the biggest new IP release for the entire gen”

With enough caveats, anything can be a “massive success”.

S2Killinit221d ago

Massive success based on how many people who had the subscription already clicked on it?

After being starved of games?

MS just had a leak where they reduced goal from 75% increase in gamepass subs, to not losing gamepass subs? That means they are losing more subs than they are selling consoles!

Markusb33221d ago

be interesting to see actual sales numbers, like hogworts rather than player counts, how many played it and moved on ? its a weird metric to look at and base success. Steam numbers are not looking good at all.
Hard to say if it was a success as you dont know the sales numbers and never will. Funny as during the 360 gen xb loved to keep telling everyone they were winnng npd over ps3, not so much last gen or this one.

Sharky231221d ago

Think about how much money and how many copies it would’ve sold if it wasn’t on Game Pass. They cut out a few million sales just by not being on PlayStation.

Markdn220d ago

When there's nothing else to play you play the rubbish they give you for free.

Obscure_Observer220d ago

Starfield was born to be another EPIC XBOX IP!!!

Todd Howard is a genius!

+ Show (13) more repliesLast reply 220d ago
Sciurus_vulgaris221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

I expect Starfield to have similar sales to the PC and xbox versions of Fallout 4.

As an aside:

I think Starfield is a good game, I’m about 36 hrs in leaning towards an 8/10 score. The game isn’t as advanced as I would like. It still has stereotypical Bethesda restrictions, noticeable loading, AI systems need more development and lack of vehicles. Additionally, I find the side quests more engaging than the main quests. Graphics are nice, general gameplay is enjoyable and I like the background lore and some of the characters.

Brazz221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

It will not get anywhere close to Fallout 4 +25M copys sold. It will be very Lucky to sell 50% of Fallout 4.

Sciurus_vulgaris221d ago

I said the Xbox and PC sales of Fallout 4, not the total sales.

shinoff2183221d ago

I found the background lore extremely limited. Most computers aren't accessible let alone having much to say. The books you can read are limited and at some point it's the same ones over and over. I expected skyrim fallout type of lore and it doesn't even touch those. For being a universe I felt it lacked. I'd still give it a 7.5 8 but I'm personally just gonna wait for some updates/dlc. Have about 30 hours in or so

MrNinosan221d ago

So still no sales number?

Anyways, didn't it have 10 millions who installed the gane already after 2-3 weeks, and now, almost 2 months later, only another million installed the game.

Seems kinda low being the most anticipated game on a service that is "to good to be true" and "beat deal in gaming".

ravens52221d ago

This lol. How many copies has it sold? Can we get an actual number? Yes, it does matter when we're talking about a game being a success. People playing it on gamepass does not make it successful sales wise.

badz149221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

right?? especially now that Sony has announced over 2.5mil units of Spidey2 sold in 24H, surely Bethesda can do better than just simply announcing "muh11mil players", RIGHT??

ChasterMies221d ago

Microsoft stopped reporting sales numbers shortly after the launch of Xbox One, when it was clear that Xbox was losing badly to PlayStation. That was about 10 years ago.

Chevalier221d ago (Edited 221d ago )

Convenient then that Xbox just announced they'll no longer announce Gamepass subscriber numbers...

https://www.forbes.com/site...

After confirming 3rd year failing to meet targets

https://metro.co.uk/2023/10...

Watch for the 'bump'

"I also forgot another factor, that Microsoft is about to rebrand Xbox Live Gold to Game Pass Core which would “increase” Game Pass subs by tens of millions instantly, albeit in name only, so that may be a big banner headline they want to roll out."

shinoff2183220d ago

Chevalier,that's interesting. Gives them more room to spin bs, so their fans don't jump ship.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 220d ago
Kakashi Hatake221d ago

I'm sure movie directors will be fine with box office numbers turning to "watchers"

shinoff2183221d ago

What. Difference is you pay for box office tickets per movie. It's not a box office subscription where you movie hop the theater.

Show all comments (91)
180°

Take-Two CEO Doesn’t Think AI Will Reduce Employment or Dev Costs; “Stupidest Thing” He’s Heard

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn't think AI will reduce employment or lower development costs, and calls it "stupidest thing" he's ever heard.

lodossrage7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

They already have AI trained to do coding.......

How he thinks it's stupid is beyond me, Especially since we see it happening in real time.

CS74h ago

Company A has 300 employees and lays of 200 to replace them with AI to release the same quality game.

Company B has 300 employees and keeps all 300 but instead uses AI to release a game with dramatically larger scale, scope, complexity, short dev cycle etc.

Company B would release a dramatically better product by using humans + AI and consumers would buy the better game.

I actually agree with this concept.

Huey_My_D_Long4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

This is key facet. Its how the AI is used. It's actually is impressive as is and really would make an amazing addition to alot of people in their jobs, not just tech. It also has the potential for businesses to use to lay off large amounts of people, as much as they could to save money on labor. I hope too many companies don't go with the latter. But since usually companies are worried about bottom line over people...we will see some try and hopefully fail. But yeah, if its to help workers like in your company B scenario I'm totally down...Just scared Company A may be too enticing to some ceos and businesses.

Darkegg4h ago

Value of AI and value of humans will both be increased with human-AI complex. Each, by themselves, will not be independently better than the other. Whether AI will ever be independent from humans is the fear question of humans, ironically because of our doing. At this stage, most of the doing is because of humans, not because of AI. AI is doing exactly that by our design, until we have failed ourselves with an AI development that went awry. The biggest take is that humans have only ourselves to blame when things become wrong, and we have to decide what is the ultimate goal with AI we want to accomplish. It would take a person with high morals and high ethics to make right of AI. I would not want businessman to decide what AI should do or what capabilities it can have. AI should be in the hands of people with high moral fiber, or those operating on love, kindness, and compassion.

BlackOni3h ago

AI is SUPPOSED to be used as a tool, not a replacement. It's designed to do two important things artists can take advantage of immediately.

- Make the ideation/reference imaging process much quicker and easier (basically using it as a google search)
- Make mundane and time consuming tasks faster and easier so more time is spent on creation.

Unfortunately, what many have done is used it as a way to replace rather than supplement.

Einhander19721h ago(Edited 50m ago)

CS7

In the ideal world yes.

In the real world where companies have shown little desire to innovate and spent every effort to maximize profits the end result will be the same quality games (if were lucky) made by less people and more AI.

Company Real World: Fires 200 people and makes the same game cheaper using AI and the executives get record bonuses.

Edit:

Lets look at history, specifically auto manufacturing.

In the 70's and 80's the auto unions tried to oppose automation of jobs (robots) stating that they would take peoples jobs. And the people in charge who wanted to make more money said the exact same types of things that are being said about AI. But we can look at history and see that countless types of jobs were in fact replaced by automation, that was of course even compounded upon by computers.

The net effect was that the rich got richer less jobs were needed so wages were forced down by competition for the jobs that were left.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4m ago
Number1TailzFan4h ago

You can already make your own SFX with text prompts now as well, of course it will lower development cost and time

1Victor4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

WARNING WARNING ‼️ SARCASM AHEAD
Sure Strauss and robots didn’t take jobs from car factories.
Edit:Sad thing is he believes it and unfortunately he won’t be replaced for a long time by AI

senorfartcushion3h ago(Edited 3h ago)

He doesn't, he's just lying. These people lay people off so they can get bonuses. If AI takes jobs, their bonus goes bigger and the workforce goes smaller.

porkChop1h ago

Because he sees AI as a tool to aid development. He wants to use AI to help make bigger and better games in the same timeframe. Other CEOs want to replace devs with AI to cut costs and make lifeless games faster for a quick buck. Strauss has the right idea, this is how AI should be used. To extend and expand the capabilities of devs.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4m ago
jambola7h ago

Ceo says stupid thing
Part 5837384

Zeref5h ago(Edited 5h ago)

I think maybe sometimes we give people in these positions too much credit when it comes to intelligence.

romulus235h ago

As long as it doesn't effect his inflated executive salary or his ridiculous bonuses I'm sure he's fine with it.

RNTody4h ago

Hahaha yeah trust the CEO suit over the actual developers making the games. Good one.

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100°

HexGaming Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Hex Phantom

Custom Controller Company HexGaming launched a Kickstarter campaign for their latest pro controller, Hex Phantom. - IS

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infinitestart.com
100°

Every PlayStation Studios game available now on Windows PC

Windows Central writes: "Many PlayStation Studios games that are ported to PC get dedicated PS5 DualSense support, which allows users to experience haptic feedback and adaptive trigger support without actually having to own a PS5.

According to Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, it's still the company's intent to launch the bigger single-player games on PS5 first, before later bringing the games to PC. This might not be the case for multiplayer games however, which are considered okay to launch simultaneously on console and PC."

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windowscentral.com
ocelot071d 13h ago

My guess is after god of war. Probably last of us 2 that's a almost 4 year old game now and by the time it's released on pc it will be more than 4 years old or close to 5.

Elda1d 7h ago

Every old Playstation game that is now on PC.

shinoff218322h ago

Right. I definitely see what a headlined from a website named windows central was trying to do though. It's cute little wordplay to help out the green box

Flewid63820h ago

Are PlayStation games no longer good or worth playing once they are old?

Elda20h ago

I'm guessing my comment went over your head.

XiNatsuDragnel1d 6h ago

Good at least they can sell hardware