One of the developers working on Starfield received a tattoo to commemorate the game but cannot reveal it due to it being a spoiler. With Starfield being the next game from the lauded Bethesda Game Studios, anticipation for the game is running increasingly high.Bethesda Game Studios is best known for developing the Elder Scrolls series and for helming the Fallout franchise since Fallout 3 in 2008. Starfield was announced in 2018 as Bethesda's first new IP in decades. With Starfield's September 6 release date fast approaching, it has become one of the most anticipated games of the year. Bethesda and its parent company Microsoft are capitalizing on this excitement by hosting a Starfield Direct that will premiere following the Xbox Game Showcase on June 11. Some fear has spread surrounding the chance of Starfield being leaked or spoiled before its release, as was seen with the leaks of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Bethesda Design Director Emil Pagliarulo revealed on Twitter that he must take an extra step to avoid spreading spoilers after getting a Starfield tattoo that he must now keep covered. Starfield is not the only Bethesda property he has worked on and has a tattoo of, as he also has Fallout and Elder Scrolls tattoos.
Pagliarulo later stated that the tattoo itself was not a major spoiler but maintained that "anything unreleased is a spoiler," and should not be revealed. Not too much has been shown of Starfield's story and characters outside the brief glimpses shown in trailers. However, the ESRB rating of Starfield shows that the game will have romantic encounters with associated dialogue. Other aspects of the game's setting, story, and characters are sure to be highlighted in next month's Starfield Direct, which will likely be the last major presentation on the game before its release.
The efforts of developers to keep games they work on from being leaked or spoiled before release are emblematic of how seriously leaks are taken by studios. As was seen with the reaction of Take-Two Interactive following the GTA 6 leaks, a game being leaked can be a distressing experience for its developers, as their labor of love could be spread online before it is finished. Bethesda is right to be more concerned about Starfield being revealed or spoiled beforehand, and these efforts will hopefully pay off with the absence of any spoilers before the game's launch later this year.
Starfield launches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.