Tonight’s Play Issue 1 · Late Sept 2026
Starfield cover art
Art: Bethesda Softworks · from the official Microsoft Store listing
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Starfield

Bethesda Game Studios · Bethesda Softworks

Xbox Series X|SPCCloud

About the game

Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.

The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy – and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems in Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest and most ambitious game.

https://eulas.bethesda.net/Starfield

Description from the publisher’s Microsoft Store listing.

Story

AI-assisted summary

In 2330, people live across the Settled Systems, a region reaching about fifty light-years from Sol. Faster-than-light travel arrived in the 2150s, and Earth later became uninhabitable, pushing settlers toward worlds such as Jemison and Akila. Two powers, the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective, share an uneasy peace after a war. You begin as a miner for Argos Extractors, hired by Constellation, a famed group of explorers, to recover a buried artifact with odd gravitational effects. A strange vision follows the dig. After a pirate raid on the site, you carry the find to Constellation's lodge in New Atlantis and join their search for more of these objects, one of the last great mysteries they hope to solve. Along the way you can also sign on with groups such as the UC Vanguard or the Freestar Rangers.

Full story (spoilers)

You start in 2330 as a miner who unearths an artifact for Constellation, suffers a vision, and after a Crimson Fleet raid delivers it to the Lodge in New Atlantis. You join the search for more. A stronger anomaly leads you to uncover an ancient temple, and activating it grants supernatural powers. With Walter Stroud you claim another artifact in Neon, but a Starborn demands it before Constellation escapes. While repairing their satellite, The Eye, you learn the Lodge is under attack and must choose which site to save. A member dies at the place you abandon. The Hunter lets the survivors leave. You later find the Hunter with another Starborn, the Emissary. They are humans from parallel universes, and the Emissary is a version of the member who died. Collecting every artifact opens the Unity, a path to further universes. At Cape Canaveral you learn the artifacts helped create the Grav Drive that ruined Earth's magnetosphere. You can back the Hunter, back the Emissary, or neither, then fight the Starborn at a buried temple. A parallel self at the Unity says entering makes you Starborn and abandons this universe, your possessions, and your relationships so the story can restart. After one crossing you may replay the quest with changes or skip to artifacts. A second crossing can send you into one of several altered universes.

Written with AI from the sources below and checked claim by claim against them; nothing else is added. Wording is ours; Wikipedia content is CC BY-SA 4.0.

Trailer

Official trailer · Bethesda Softworks on YouTube · Watch on YouTube ↗Loads from youtube-nocookie.com only when you press play.

Screenshots

Tap to expand · from the Microsoft Store listing
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Game details and art come from each game’s official Microsoft Store listing (cover images are cropped from those official images, or from publisher press kits, with our title overlay; nothing is AI-generated); art © the respective publishers, used for editorial review. Game Pass membership from Microsoft’s public Game Pass catalog, checked Sep 29, 2026. Critic scores appear only where a real aggregate exists; otherwise “Not yet reported”.