Frequent crashes, slowdowns, freezes, and save issues have plagued Starfield on PS5 and PS5 Pro since its debut over the weekend, prompting refund requests after failed troubleshooting. Bethesda Game Studios acknowledged the problems on April 13 and is preparing a hotfix for release this week.
Starfield, Bethesda's sci-fi RPG originally launched on Xbox Series X/S and PC nearly three years ago, arrived on PlayStation 5 over the weekend alongside a major free update and the Terran Armada expansion. However, the PS5 port has been hit by severe technical problems affecting both base models and PS5 Pro. Players flooded the Starfield subreddit, with a thread titled 'Base PS5 crashing getting out of hand, its unplayable' drawing dozens of complaints. Users reported crashes every few minutes, even when simply piloting ships or attempting to land on planets. 'I can't even land on any planets or try do anything other sit my ship or game will crash,' one wrote. Another said, 'I've tried all proposed fixes... now the game won't even load, this is beyond ridiculous.' Complaints persisted despite deleting saves, switching performance modes, reinstalling, and a day-one patch, which failed to fix crashes or save issues. A PS5 Pro owner, Destin Legarie, shared a crash screenshot after one hour despite optimized settings. Digital Foundry noted a surprising number of bugs needing urgent fixes. One player called it their worst Bethesda experience since Skyrim on PS3, feeling 'seriously ripped off,' while others demanded refunds. Bethesda responded on X: 'We’re aware of some reported PS5 crashing issues and have narrowed them down to a small number of causes. We’re addressing these in a hotfix we’re aiming to release this week.' The studio thanked players for feedback amid reports of tech support contacts.
