Starfield has gone gold, preloads are coming

pcgamer.com:

Lest you still be carrying worries about a really last-minute delay, you can now rest easy: Bethesda has announced that its upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield has officially gone gold. To mark the big moment, lead designer Emil Pagliarulo and lead quest designer Will Shen held a Q&A session on the Bethesda Discord.

Going gold—the point at which a game is essentially locked in for release—doesn't have quite the same impact that it used to back in the days before launch-day patches, near-daily hotfixes, and live service. But it's still an important milestone, if only because it signals that yes, this is really happening: There may be bugs ahead (although Bethesda parent Microsoft has said, boldly, that this will be the studio's most bug-free release ever) but at least there won't be any more waiting.

As you might expect, conversation on the Starfield Discord channel is flowing fast and furious, and the Q&A session is difficult to pick out of the crowd. It is possible to see it by following a multi-step process to get «Constellation» access on the Discord server, but an easier path forward can be found on the Starfield subreddit, where the session has been posted in its entirety.

The Q&A includes some details about Starfield that haven't previously been revealed. Players will have access to housing in different cities in the game, some available for purchase and others that can be earned as quest rewards, and players caught breaking the law—for instance, getting busted smuggling contraband items—will have the choice of going to jail or paying a fine, or (maybe) blasting their way to freedom if that's how they roll.

Pagliarulo also confirmed that while non-violence is generally an option, a complete pacifist run won't be