Starfield's launch is nearly here. Well, sort of. The most recent push of its release date now has it arriving on September 6. Hopefully a date that won't be altered again, even if Spider-Man does choose the same month to swing onto PS5. More big updates about Starfield will be revealed during its showcase this summer, but one interesting piece of new information has been spotted ahead of time. The removal of Russian language support from the space RPG's Steam page.

PCGamesN spotted the removal of Russian language support, noting this isn't simply a case of it never being there at all. The report highlights that Starfield was confirmed to have Russian subtitles and a Russian in-game interface as recently as April 4. For currently unknown reasons, that no longer appears to be the case, and it doesn't seem to be a bug or an accident that has caused the removal either.

A deeper dive into the backend of Starfield's Steam listing confirms the store tags connected to the implementation of the Russian language in the game have been actively removed. It's possible to search for which games include support for various languages on Steam – handy to know if you didn't already – and when running down the list of games that support Russian, Starfield is no longer there.



Implementing Russian isn't new territory for Bethesda either. Both Skyrim and Fallout 4 include support for the language. Redfall will too, at least at the time of typing this, which is being developed by Arkane but published by Bethesda. The reason for the removal of Russian from Starfield is unknown. Bethesda will likely offer up an explanation in due course, but itt may be linked to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine - Bethesda certainly wouldn't be the first studio to try and send a message to Russia through a video game.

A number of major developers and publishers suspended sales in Russia last year following its invasion of Ukraine, Nintendo and Sony among them. EA reacted by pulling the Russian national team from FIFA, and Euro Truck Simulator 2's Heart of Russia DLC was canceled entirely. Bethesda may even be going the same way as Gotham Knights by making the decision not to launch Starfield in Russia at all.

As we wait for big news about Starfield via its showcase this June, those of you disappointed by the reveal the game will be absolutely sexless have already been putting plans in place to remedy that. The rating for Starfield revealed there will be no sex in the expansive RPG on any of its 1,000 planets. That prompted people who need sex with their virtual space exploration to turn to modders, asking them to make it a priority when the game eventually launches.



Posted: Apr 16, 2023 9:53 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/starfield-removes-russian-language-support-steam/