Officially, Starfield launches on September 6 on PC, Xbox Series consoles, and Game Pass. However, because of time zones and early access, things are a bit messy. Thankfully, you’ll be able to start playing Bethesda’s highly anticipated RPG as early as 5 p.m. on August 31 in California. But who can and can’t play early and when exactly “early” is a little complicated thanks to timezones and multiple editions.
Starfield was announced all the way back in 2018—alongside Elder Scrolls VI—and over the last five years the hype has been building. This is Bethesda’s first big single-player RPG since 2015’s Fallout 4 and the first new IP from Bethesda in over two decades. And it sounds huge. It might take you over 50 hours to get through the main quest, and it’ll contain over 1,000 worlds, mixing handcrafted planets with procedurally generated ones to achieve such a wild number. So yeah, this is a massive game. As such, plenty of folks are going to want to start playing this Xbox and PC-only RPG as soon as possible. But its actual launch is a little confusing.
That’s because there are technically four versions of Starfield: the Standard edition ($70), Premium edition($100), Upgraded Game Pass Premium edition ($30), and finally the Constellation edition ($250). If you want to play Starfield five days before its official September 6 launch, you’ll need to buy either the Premium or Constellation editions. If you have Game Pass (or already bought the basic version of the game) you can upgrade to the Premium version for $30 and gain access to Starfield a few days early, too.
When can I play Starfield early access?
Here’s how that breaks down:
- On September 1, assuming you bought one of the special editions or upgraded your copy, you can start playing Starfield at 12:00 UTC. (Click here to convert to your time.)
- For those with early access who are currently living in the United States, Canada, or South America, that actually means you’ll be able to play on August 31. In California, players will be able to start exploring Starfield as early as 5:00 p.m. PDT.
- On September 6, Standard edition owners or Game Pass subscribers can start playing at 12:00 UTC. (Click here to convert to your time.)
- And because of timezones, if you live in the United States, Canada, or South America, you’ll be able to start playing on September 5. As before, Californian players can start as early as 5:00 p.m. PDT.
If you want to maximize your Starfield playtime you can also preload the RPG on both Xbox and PC. (Remember, this game isn’t coming to PlayStation 5 or Switch. It’s also not playable on Xbox One.) However, you’ll need to clear out some room on your SSD as Starfield takes up a decent amount of space—specifically, around 139 gigabytes on PC and 126 gigs on Xbox Series X/S consoles.
Depending on your internet connection and which version you pre-ordered you might need to start downloading the game pretty soon if you want to take advantage of the early access bonus included with the pricey versions.
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