Starfield has been nominated as a finalist in the Best Technology category for the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards. Bethesda shared this news only a few hours after the announcement of them being forced to delay their biggest update on Steam Beta. The fans were eagerly looking forward to that update as it could have brought over 100 fixes and improvements.
The news about delaying the major update didn’t go well with the fans, as they took it as a sign of incompetence from the American studio. It led to fans continuously trolling the developers on social media. Fans even asked the studio to take as much time as they needed cause Starfield is the game of the generation as it is now. They also mentioned the various glitches in the game, which they wanted Bethesda to solve as soon as possible.
We discovered an issue we want to address before releasing our update into the Steam Beta. We’re aiming to release it later this week but we’ll confirm timing when we know for sure. Thanks for your patience! https://t.co/XnevDP9Baz
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) January 16, 2024
If delaying the game wasn’t enough, Starfield being nominated for the Game Developers Choice Awards annoyed the fans even more. The 2023-action RPG was supposed to be the next big thing for the studio after The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Since its release, Starfield has been facing a lot of criticism from the audience for its game mechanics. So, it was surprising for fans to see it get nominated for an award for the “Best Technology” category.
We’re happy to announce that @StarfieldGame has been nominated as a finalist in the Best Technology category of the @Official_GDC 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards! #Starfield #GDCA2024 pic.twitter.com/Ek0z8jZDN9
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) January 16, 2024
Fans claimed they found the game’s technology to be quite awful. A lot of them complained about how they soon got bored playing the game. However, some fans congratulated Starfield for this achievement, although it is unclear whether they meant it or were just trolling the studio.
Starfield’s recent wins in award shows raise the question of whether early adopters failed to notice its brilliance
Fans have been criticizing Starfield for its poor gameplay and many have even been calling it a “loading screen simulator” for its heavy reliance on a loading screen when fast traveling between planets. However, despite all the criticism from fans, the game has been nominated for multiple awards. In fact, it even won the Xbox Game of the Year and Most Innovative Gameplay at the Steam Awards.
Seeing it win so many awards raises the issue of whether fans failed to appreciate its brilliance after its release, as it has also fallen into the “mostly negative” review area on Steam. A tiny group of fans still believe the game has some promise, and perhaps the upcoming updates will help Starfield become what everyone expected it to be.
Many games were seen as a failure upon their release but later turned into quite a hit among fans. The 2020-released Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the finest examples, as the game faced a lot of criticism for the bugs and glitches upon its release. However, CD Projekt Red later fixed the issues and released DLCs which attracted a lot of fans back into the game.
