Starfield director Todd Howard praised 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 mainly thanks a lot of people and reflects on the long project, a particular highlight is his praise for Phil Spencer and the Xbox – emphasizing how they allow developers to “improve”. Here’s exactly what he had to say: Courtesy of Windows Central:

Todd Howard: “And of course there’s Phil Spencer. His support for every game and player was unwavering and passionate. Joining Xbox has brought us closer to many of the people we’ve worked with for over 20 years. I can’t think of a better place for game development where the diversity of studios, developers and games can flourish. This support comes from the entire Xbox leadership team and from all areas of release and development support.”

Long before Microsoft took over Bethesda, Xbox was working with Todd Howard and his team on console versions of games like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

This isn’t the first time Todd has praised Xbox support in Starfield. He also noted how Phil, Matt Botti and the rest of the team have made an “amazing” comeback in July this year:

“Obviously we’ve worked with them for a long time, 20 years at Morrowind…but being part of Xbox and supporting them really allows us to be that ambitious and take that risk…fingers crossed.”

According to Todd and Phil’s previous comments, every member of the Xbox Starfield QA team played in the run-up to the release – to identify any bugs and improve the overall quality of the game. Bethesda even invited some of its other teams to help with Starfield.