Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios’ Skyrim-but-in-space RPG, finally has a firm September 6 release date. A June 11 presentation will give us a closer look at the game that has over 1,000 planets, but something you might not have expected to learn before then is just how sexless Starfield will be. By sexless, I mean, truly sexless because the game has none whatsoever.
Announced at E3 2018, Starfield is easily Bethesda’s most anticipated game to date since it’s the first new IP the developer has dropped in decades. And despite a delay or two, the space-faring RPG will also mark Bethesda’s first major new game release following 2018’s somewhat disastrous Fallout 76. In short, a lot is riding on Starfield to be a smash hit in a similar vein as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (which won’t ever die). Still, details on the minutiae of the game — how long it is, what the narrative is about, what we’re even doing, those kinds of things — remain scarce at the moment. However, thanks to a new age rating published by the Australian Classification Board (ACB), we now know that Starfield has been assigned the restrictive “18+ rating” for a few reasons.
Read More: Everything We Know About Starfield’s Dialogue And Traits System So Far
Drugs aplenty, but zero coitus
Starfield will reportedly feature “high impact” and “interactive” drug use that constitutes the restricted “18+ rating.” The ACB’s chart, which was published on March 15, noted other classifications as well, including “moderate impacts” for language and themes, “strong impacts” for violence, and “very mild impacts” for nudity. However, the ACB specified there’s no impact for sex. So, no one fucks in Starfield, but everyone commits crimes and gets high. Yep, sounds like space.
While it sucks for Starfield to force involuntary celibacy onto us, Bethesda isn’t known for putting overt intercourse into its games. In most instances, the studio has been coy about the act of sex, only ever implying it in the Fallout games with an obligatory fade-to-black as characters lie like planks next to each other in bed. Similarly, the Elder Scrolls series had innuendos and references, but no obvious hip gyrating or pelvic thrusting. I’m bummed I can’t go around fucking all the space baddies I want, but it isn’t surprising considering Bethesda’s past implementation (or lack thereof) of sex in its games. At least I can bang my space dealer’s line to pick up the most out-there drugs possible.
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Kotaku reached out to Bethesda and Microsoft for comment.
Starfield may be months away, but you won’t have to wait long to learn more when the game’s June presentation comes around. Until then, can I suggest over 16 similar games to play? There’s plenty of stuff to tide you over till September, including Destiny 2, The Outer Worlds, Prey, and Warframe.
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