Pete Hines: Starfield's exclusivity will help streamline development

In a recent interview with Gamespot, Bethesda exec Pete Hines made a good point; Starfield's exclusivity will remove barriers and roadblocks to the game's development.

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Starfield's exclusivity to Xbox Series X/S and PC isn't just good for business, it's also good for developers. Removing the need for PS5 optimization will the game development process more efficient by removing another platform environment. Game devs won't have to iterate, execute, test, and optimize for PlayStation 5 consoles. While the Series X/S and PS5 are similar on paper and both use the x86 architectures, they are still different enough to cause platform-specific headaches for game makers.

Bethesda's management agrees. Pete Hines says this exclusivity decision is a good thing for Starfield's development team.

"When you go to fewer platforms, your development gets more streamlined. You're not worried about 'oh how does it work on this box versus how does it work on that box.' We're not making it on that box. It just needs to run as well as possible on this one, on a PC. You know, a narrower focus helps," Hines said in a Gamespot interview.

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The flip side is also true with games like Deathloop, which is being made exclusively for the PlayStation 5.

"Same is true for a game like Deathloop. We decided to do a partnership with Sony on Deathloop and that game became exclusive to that platform, that development got more streamlined because we said PS5 and PC. That's what we're focusing on.

"I think in that way it does free up the developers a little bit in terms of what they're trying to get the game to be the best it can be on fewer platforms."

It's also great news that Starfield isn't coming to the Xbox One family of hardware. If it were cross-gen, Bethesda would have to optimize Starfield to run on five consoles: Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

Starfield releases November 11, 2022 exclusively on Xbox Series X/S and PC. It will release day one on Game Pass.