Bethesda’sStarfieldis one of the most hotly anticipated titles of 2023, which is a heck of an achievement for a year that’s already played host to heavy hitters likeHogwarts Legacy,Resident Evil 4, andDiablo 4, to list a few. It’s easy to see the appeal, too, asthe game’s been described as “Skyrimin space”by Todd Howard himself. It’s a given, of course, that not everyone will find themselves enjoying what appears to be a classic Bethesda Game Studios RPG, but some may have taken their biases a tad too far.
In fact, some early critique coming from a particular game developer has drawn the ire of Bethesda Game Studios’ own Head of Publishing, Pete Hines. Certainly, there’s room for critique in every project – especially one as large and substantial asStarfieldappears to be. Whether the critique that’s now being directed at the game is valid or not, however, is a wholly different matter.
The physiognomy of start screens.
The start screen of a game can reveal a lot about how rushed the team was and how much pride they took in their work.
Starfield’s start screen either shows hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn’t care.pic.twitter.com/Ok4gzQ3DVo
Judging Starfield by its Main Menu
Mark Kern ofFirefallinfamyhas taken to Twitter/X to argue about the “physiognomy” ofStarfield‘s main menu screen, claiming that its simplicity betrays “hasty shipping deadlines.” Rather pointedly, Kern feels thatStarfieldis a game that’s been made by a “passionate team overworked, or a team that didn’t care.” Before making these claims, Kern said that a given game’s start screen is, in fact, extremely telling of how much pride a dev team has taken in its work, and that it’s something that’s “often done at the very end of [a game’s] development.”
It is telling, perhaps, that Kern decided specifically to referencephysiognomywhen bringing his claims to light: a pseudo-scientific theory claiming that a person’s character or personality could accurately be assessed from the appearance of their face.
Bethesda’s Pete Hines did not mince any words.
Or they designed what they wanted and that’s been our menu for years and was one of the first things we settled on.
Having an opinion is one thing. Questioning out a developer’s “care” because you would have done it different is highly unprofessional coming from another “dev”
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon)July 07, 2025
Basing critique on the aesthetics of a game’s main menu is an interesting choice of argument, though, and it is certainly worth pointing out that Bethesda’s behavior implies the opposite of what Kern is saying.Starfieldis in select reviewers’ hands as of just a couple of days ago, specifically, giving them weeks’ worth of access.
