Bethesda Is Responding to Negative Reviews of Starfield on Steam

ign.com:

Bethesda has taken the unusual step for a triple-A video game maker of responding to negative reviews of Starfield on Steam.

As spotted by Project Zomboid developer Andy Hodgetts and flagged in a tweet, representatives of the Microsoft-owned company have been replying to negative reviews on Valve’s platform since early November, seemingly trying to tackle Starfield's ‘mixed’ user review rating of 69%.

Many of the negative reviews echo common complaints with the sprawling space game, like this one posted on November 6 from a player with 56 hours in Starfield.

This review sparked a response from someone called “Bethesda_Kraken [developer]”, who signed off their post as coming from Bethesda Customer Support:

It’s a pretty stock response, and quotes Ashley Cheng, Bethesda's managing director, who uttered the phrase “when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored” in a New York Times feature published ahead of Starfield’s September launch.

Here’s a more recent response, again from the busy Bethesda_Kraken, to a negative review from a Starfield player with over 76 hours on record.

And here’s the developer response, posted on November 27, the same day as the review.

Here’s another example, but this time from someone called Bethesda_FalcoYamaoka, who also signs off as from Bethesda Customer Support:

While indie video game developers respond to Steam reviews all the time, big publishers like Bethesda rarely get stuck in, which makes these responses, however robotic, noteworthy. Why would Bethesda bother? It may be trying to steer the Starfield sentiment in a more positive direction, mindful of that ‘mixed’ user review. Starfield is currently the lowest-rated Bethesda game ever on Valve’s