A select few are playing Starfield already

pcgamesn.com:

Wish you were playing Starfield already? So do we, but there are a few people who’ve already got that privilege. While we count down the days to the Starfield release date, some fortunate people are already in the position to get their hands on the most anticipated space game of the year. As the months become weeks, the wait is almost over – but that doesn’t mean we’re not a little jealous of those playing Starfield right now.

While we’re all busy with more immediate games on our plate, such as getting ready for the Diablo 4 season 1 start date or picking out our race and class of choice before the Baldur’s Gate 3 release date arrives, some of the top players at Microsoft and Bethesda are sinking into Starfield for themselves. One user on the Starfield Reddit was surprised to see Bethesda Game Studios’ new RPG pop up among the ‘Popular with friends’ category, showing that several people had been playing it.

As it turns out, the people in question are Pete Hines, senior vice president at Bethesda Softworks, and Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Gaming and the Xbox brand. Both have publicly viewable Xbox live profiles – Pete goes by ‘DCDeacon,’ while Phil is simply ‘P3’ – and you can follow people on the site without them having to confirm you, so it’s not that strange to see them in the list.

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that some of the top dogs at Microsoft and Bethesda are getting hands-on with the game; Spencer was actually spotted playing Starfield via Xbox back in November 2022, so this isn’t even a completely new phenomenon. If the pair have been playing it again recently, however, that suggests they might be checking out something more closely resembling a final build.

Neither seems to have picked up