Starfield decides that Pluto is once again a planet

In the words of Jerry Smith, “Pluto is a planet”.

Plutonians will be smiling today, because Bethesda has decided to fly in the face of the International Astronomy Union General Assembly’s ruling and labelled Pluto as a planet on the Starfield map. Evidently, the technicality that Pluto “has not cleared its neighbouring region of other objects” didn’t sit well with the developers. And rightly so.

Ready for Pluto? Watch the Starfield trailer first

Who made this monumental discovery, you ask? That would be Rebs Gaming, who shared the screenshot of their find on Twitter, happy to not only see Pluto listed but that it’s explorable too.

Regardless of Bethesda’s reasons for including Pluto – perhaps the Starfield universe has vastly superior knowledge to us – it won’t have any dramatic effects on the game. Or, at least, it doesn’t as far as we know. Although some of us are reviewing the game as I type this, what we’re discovering along our journey is strictly under lock and key until the review embargo lifts on 31 August. Then, and only then, will you learn what we know.

Still, while we keep Bethesda’s secrets safe, initial feedback about the game has been incredibly positive. As with any AAA game, the hype can sometimes overshadow the final result, with fans left disappointed at what could have been; while Starfield is still an unknown, first impressions are excellent.

However, while the majority of comments are positive, there’s been some ugly remarks made about the game, specifically its start screen. Mark Kern, a former Blizzard dev, said “The start screen of a game can reveal a lot about how rushed the team was and how much pride they took in their work. Starfield's start screen either shows hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn't care.”

Wow, those are strong words to just throw around two weeks before the game officially launches. Needless to say, Bethesda wasn’t going to take such slander lying down; Bethesda’s vice-president Peter Hines cuttingly replied “Or they designed what they wanted and that’s been our menu for years and was one of the first things we settled on.Having an opinion is one thing. Questioning out a developer’s ‘care’ because you would have done it differently is highly unprofessional coming from another dev.” Talk about a savage shutdown.

Anyone else curious to see if Kern is upset by Pluto being a planet again? It’ll definitely make for popcorn-consuming entertainment if they dare to upset Hines again. We wouldn’t cross Hines, that’s for damn sure.

Starfield will release on Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC on 6 September.