Starfield has hit gaming headlines again today, this time over negative comments made by the former World of Warcraft director Mark Kern over a leaked image of Starfield’s title screen, sparking a hard-hitting retaliation from Pete Hines, the current Head of Publishing for Bethesda.
Mark Kern began tweeting: “The start of a game can reveal a lot about how rushed the team was and how much pride they took in their work”
“Starfield’s star screen either shows hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn’t care”
“Start screens are often done at the very end of development. Teams are too busy making the core game. It’s quite common for the start screen to completley change once the game is shipping or on patch 0. Teams that take pride want to put a good face forward and will often redo these just prior to the game going live,” ending Kern’s rant.
Pete Hines jumped in shortly after in Starfield’s defence, who seemed more disappointed in a fellow dev’s comments than anything else.
“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 developer’s ‘care’ because you would have done it differently is highly unprofessional coming from another ‘dev’,” Hines responded.”
Starfield fans were quick to jump to the defence of the game, bombarding Kern with tweets
Hines hasn’t been the only one to retaliate, with fans also joining in on the defence, swiftly putting an end to the debate by comparing some of history’s best games to the leaked image. Starfield’s title screen is extremely reminiscent of a wide range of games, like Bethesda’s own Skyrim and Fallout, and others like Dark Souls, Tales, Xenoblade, Neir Automata and the most recent game of the year Elden Ring, all having simple title screens that are easy to the eye and swift to navigate.
Hines’s comments in regards to the title screen do seem to be backed up with recent news from Bethesda, after they announced that Starfield has gone gold with plenty of time until the release of the game. For those that don’t know, a game going gold is a term used for game development being completed.
Not only that, but players who have pre-downloaded the game have spotted the game is currently updated to version 1.6.35.0, leading them to believe the game has been tested and ironed out to be the best day-one release for Bethesda yet. As most gamers know, Bethesda doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to its previous game releases. Most Elder Scrolls and Fallout titles have been released with many game-breaking bugs, frame rate drops and glitches.
Surely if the game has been updated this much, according to Mark Kern, the title screen is the most up-to-date and final version, putting his argument to rest.
But what do you think? Do you agree with Kern? Or is a simple title screen just a gateway to an amazing game beyond? Get in touch, drop us a comment and let us know your thoughts.
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