A potential minor spoiler for Starfield.
We may have to wait until June to get the next big picture of Starfield, but the game’s ESRB rating has been published online, suggesting it contains drugs, in-game purchases, and jetpack sex. Confirmed.
ESRB, or entertainment software rating boards, Starfield gave it an M of Mature 17+ for “blood, strong language, provocative themes, drug use, and violence.” Many of these classifications are fairly standard for an M-rated game, but the rating summary contains some very interesting details.
First, it confirms that Starfield is “an open-world role-playing game in which players assume the role of a miner tasked with finding artifacts across the galaxy.” The following text covers some of the canonical stuff, such as Starfield allowing first- and third-person views, character interactions, quests, and featuring futuristic guns, lasers, axes, explosives, and more. functions are explained.
The ESRB rating summary gives some examples of “dialogue suggestive material” that players find in-game, especially after sharing a bed with another character.
“The game’s lines are suggestive and after sharing a bed with a character (e.g. ‘Life is 100% deadly STD’, ‘You are welcome to go a little wild’ But next time try it without the jetpack”; “Talk about stargazing, wow…that was amazing.
It obviously doesn’t have the full context, and it may sound accurate or it won’t even make it into the game beyond mention, but next-gen jetpack sex is probably what many people think Starfield Not what I had on my bingo card.
The abstract describes a fictional drug called Aurora, which is prominent in the game, and states that Starfield will include a section for “player characters who work in illegal drug laboratories”. and there is a “screen distortion effect” when using Aurora.
Oh, and the words “f**k*” and “bullsh*t” appear in the game.
In addition to all the aforementioned details, ESRB’s ratings page additionally confirms that Starfield will be making “in-game purchases” for both PC and Xbox Series X/S. No details have been revealed about what you’ll be purchasing, but it could be player character or ship cosmetics (Space Horse Armor, anyone?), or more substantial DLC such as new story content or full expansions. It means that there is a high possibility that
Starfield is set to launch on Xbox Series X/S and PC on September 6, 2023, with Starfield Direct coming to the Xbox Game Show on June 11 at 10am PT/1pm ET. Follow the case. This exclusive Starfield deep dive will feature “tons of new gameplay, developer interviews, and behind-the-scenes insider info.”
Starfield was originally scheduled to release on November 11, 2022, but has been pushed back to May 2022.
For more details, check out Starfield’s official gameplay published in June 2022, what we learned from our interview with Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard about the game, and how Starfield has to make a perfect landing, especially after the Redfall issues. Please confirm the reason why you think it is necessary.
Any tips? Want to talk about possible stories?please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @Adam Bankhurst and Cramp.
