Bethesda’s new Starfield update launch didn’t go as planned over the weekend. The studio’s decision to paywall part of the quest behind paywall triggered a review bomb on Steam.
The controversy began after the launch of a new quest called “Trackers Alliance” as part of Starfield’s latest update, which coincided with the premiere of the first trailer for the “Shattered Space” DLC expansion at the Xbox Games Showcase.
While the first part of the quest, titled “The Starjacker,” is available for free, the subsequent mission, “The Vulture,” requires players to purchase 700 credits for £8.99 to unlock.
This approach has led to an uproar within the Starfield community, with many taking to social media and forums to voice their concerns.
A prominent Reddit thread criticized the pricing, noting, “I see a lot of people here arguing that the new microtransactions were to be expected due to Bethesda’s history, and I agree with that part. However, I still think it’s absolutely outrageous that they’re selling individual quests instead of the whole quest line.”
Further compounding the issue is the brief duration of “The Vulture” quest, which reportedly takes only 15-20 minutes to complete.
The backlash caused a wave of review bombing on Steam, where Starfield has seen a surge in negative reviews over the weekend.
While Bethesda’s update does provide new content and the long-awaited mod support, the decision to segment parts of a quest line into paid content has raised concerns about potential future paywalls in the game.
As of now, Bethesda has not responded to the criticism and feedback from the community; I doubt they will.
