Starfield director Todd Howard praises Xbox in an internal memo

Ahead of Starfield’s early access launch on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass, game director Todd Howard released an internal memo – thanking the teams at Bethesda, ZeniMax, Xbox, and Microsoft for their contributions.

While Todd is mostly thanking a group of people and contemplating the drawn-out project, one of the most notable, in particular, is his praise for Phil Spencer and Xbox – noting how they give creators the opportunity to “flourish”. Here’s exactly what he had to say, Courtesy of Windows Central:

Todd Howard: “And of course there is Phil Spencer. His support for every game and every player has been consistent and fierce. Joining Xbox has brought us closer to many of the people we’ve worked with for over 20 years. I can’t imagine a better place to create games, where the diversity of studios, creators and games is allowed to flourish. This support came from the entire Xbox leadership team and from all areas of publishing and development support.”

Long before Microsoft acquired Bethesda, Xbox had been working with Todd Howard and his team on console versions of games like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for the original Xbox.

This isn’t the first time Todd has praised Starfield’s Xbox support either. Back in July this year, he also mentioned how “amazing” Phil, Matt Botti and the rest of the team were:

“We’ve obviously worked with them for a long time, going back 20 years with Morrowind… but being part of Xbox and supporting them, it’s really allowed us to be that ambitious and take these risks…and cross fingers.”

As per previous comments made by Todd and Phil, every member of the Xbox QA staff has been playing Starfield in the lead up to release – to help identify any bugs and improve the overall quality of the experience. Bethesda has even called on some of its other teams to offer help on Starfield.