Starfield Reportedly Coming to PS5 Next Month for £45

Xbox Exclusivity Coming to an End

According to GamesRadar+, Starfield is reportedly heading to PlayStation 5 next month with a price tag of £45. The move would mark the end of the game's two-year console exclusivity period on Xbox platforms, representing a significant shift in Microsoft's exclusivity strategy for one of its most high-profile acquisitions.

Bethesda has not officially confirmed the PS5 release, but the timing aligns with previous industry speculation about the RPG's multiplatform expansion. Starfield launched exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC in September 2023, becoming one of Microsoft's flagship titles following the $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition. The game was positioned as a system-seller for Xbox, with Phil Spencer calling it "the biggest new IP launch in over 25 years" for Bethesda Game Studios.

The potential PS5 release would follow Microsoft's broader pivot toward platform-agnostic gaming. Earlier this year, previously exclusive titles like Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded made their way to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. While Microsoft initially framed these as "community-driven" games rather than tentpole releases, bringing Starfield to PS5 would signal that even major first-party titles aren't off the table for multiplatform releases.

What PS5 Players Can Expect

The space exploration RPG puts players in the role of a customizable protagonist navigating a vast galaxy filled with factions, planets, and mysteries. Set in the year 2330, roughly 20 years after a devastating colony war, Starfield drops you into the Settled Systems as a member of Constellation, a group of space explorers searching for mysterious artifacts scattered across the galaxy.

The game features over 1,000 planets across 100+ star systems, though the procedural generation that populates many of these worlds became one of the most divisive aspects at launch. Players can build and customize their own spacecraft with modular components affecting everything from weapons loadouts to grav drive capabilities, establish outposts for resource gathering and crafting, and shape their journey through branching questlines that involve major factions like the United Colonies, Freestar Collective, and the cyberpunk-flavored Neon street gang Ryujin Industries.

Since launch, Bethesda has released multiple updates addressing player feedback and adding new features. The Shattered Space expansion, which launched in September 2024, added a more handcrafted experience on the planet Va'ruun'kai, responding to criticism about the base game's reliance on procedural content. Updates have also improved city maps, added new gameplay options, and refined the controversial inventory management systems that frustrated many players during the initial release window.

The game's reception has been mixed, with praise for its scope, ship customization depth, and classic Bethesda environmental storytelling balanced against criticism of its procedural generation, loading screen frequency, and pacing issues in the main questline. On Steam, it currently sits at "Mostly Positive" reviews, a respectable but not overwhelming reception for a studio known for genre-defining hits like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 3. The discourse around Starfield has been particularly intense within gaming communities, with debates about whether it represents Bethesda's formula showing its age or simply a game that needed more time to find its audience.

PS5 players jumping in now will benefit from over a year of patches, quality-of-life improvements, and community-discovered optimal builds and progression paths. The question remains whether the DualSense controller will receive any special implementation, as Bethesda games have historically been designed with PC and Xbox controllers in mind.

Pricing and Availability

The reported £45 price point positions Starfield below full retail pricing for new releases, which typically sit at £60-£70 on PlayStation 5. This mid-tier pricing reflects the game's time on the market and could make it more accessible to PlayStation players who have been waiting for a console release. For context, that's roughly the same launch price as other year-old AAA titles making platform jumps.

It's unclear whether this pricing includes the base game only or if any DLC will be bundled. Starfield: Shattered Space expansion currently sells separately on Xbox and PC, so PS5 players may need to factor in additional costs if they want the complete experience. A potential "Complete Edition" bundling base game and expansion hasn't been mentioned in the reports, but wouldn't be surprising given industry trends.

With no official announcement yet, PlayStation owners should watch Bethesda's channels for confirmation. If accurate, this would continue Microsoft's recent trend of bringing previously exclusive titles to competing platforms, a strategy that's sparked ongoing debate about the value proposition of Xbox hardware and Game Pass subscriptions. Some Xbox fans have expressed frustration at seeing exclusives go multiplatform, while others argue that wider availability benefits the gaming ecosystem overall and potentially funds future development.

The move also raises questions about other Microsoft-owned titles. If Starfield crosses over, could Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, or even future entries in established franchises like Gears of War eventually follow? Microsoft has been deliberately vague about which games will remain exclusive and which might expand to other platforms, evaluating decisions on a "case-by-case basis."

Are you planning to jump into Starfield if it comes to PS5, or have you already explored the Settled Systems on Xbox or PC? For those who've been holding out, this could be your chance to see what Bethesda's space epic is all about without needing to invest in Xbox hardware or a gaming PC.