Starfield Goes Gold, Preload Dates Confirmed

Bethesda's Starfield has reached one of its final pre-launch milestones with the game confirmed to have gone gold now, the creators said. That means that its runway is essentially clear now to the full launch on September 6th, and ahead of that date, up-and-coming Starfield players can make sure they're 100% ready for the game by preloading it ahead of time. Those preload dates were also confirmed on Wednesday alongside the announcement that the game had gone gold, but when you'll be able to preload the game depends on whether you're playing on the Xbox or PC platform.

The two-in-one announcement was shared via Starfield socials on Wednesday to confirm the good news about the game going gold and to give fans a heads up as to when they'd be able to preload the game after preordering it. For those playing on the Xbox Series X|S, you'll be able to start preloading Starfield as soon as tomorrow on August 17th. All others who'll be playing on Steam will have to wait awhile longer to get their preload going seeing how that preload period doesn't start until August 30th.

Prepare for launch.#Starfield has gone gold! Preloads begin tomorrow for @Xbox X|S and Windows PC and August 30 for Steam. pic.twitter.com/LC8xJnI8WN

— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) August 16, 2023

Xbox users obviously benefit the most from this preload situation since they can take some measures to make sure they're ready to play sooner than others can, but the preload dates really work out for everyone regardless of what version of the game you got. The base game will be playable on September 6th while the Digital Premium Edition and Constellation Edition will be playable via early access starting some time on September 1st, but the preload dates mean that you'll be in the clear either way no matter what platform you're playing on. Neither Bethesda nor Microsoft have confirmed the exact times that the game will release, however, so it's unclear if Xbox will be a bit ahead of Steam as is sometimes the case or if the platforms will get access to the game at the same time.

For those who still have lingering questions about the game, there's a good chance you'll get some of them answered very soon. Bethesda announced previously that there'll be a Q&A via Discord going on today, so if you've got questions, now's your chance.