Starfield delays was to prevent it becoming the next Cyberpunk 2077 claims source

metro.co.uk:

There’s already an unofficial explanation for why Starfield was delayed and it seems it was to avoid complaints that it’s full of bugs.

While there’s no official explanation for the delay of Starfield and Redfall, beyond the developers needing more time, one source has already suggested that Starfield was headed for disaster if it had kept its release date of November 11 this year.

The game now won’t be released until sometime in the first half of next year but the explanation for the delay appears to be more than just the fact that it isn’t finished yet, and instead that it was so full of bugs that it would’ve been a liability.

The comparison made is with 2020’s Cyberpunk 2077, which was pillorised for the state of its console version – which ended up ruining the reputation of both the game and creator CD Projekt.

You’d think other games companies would want to go out of their way to avoid a similar incident but the industry response since then has been mixed at best, with many publishers still releasing broken and/or half-finished games just to meet a release date – most notably Battlefield 2042 and Halo Infinite.

Bethesda apparently made the decision not to follow suit, with respected reporter Jason Schreier claiming that: ‘Last spring, before E3, I spoke to some folks on Starfield who were extremely worried about committing to a 11-11-22 date based on the progress they’d made so far. (‘Next Cyberpunk; was the term floated.)’

He goes on to suggest that the delay was a good idea and far preferable than the game being released broken or unfinished.

There’s no indication of why Redfall was delayed but it’s likely to be for similar reasons, especially as the only thing that’s ever been shown of it is a pre-rendered announcement