Starfield Menu Controversy

Overview

The Starfield Menu Controversy refers to online criticism aimed at the minimalist design of the leaked main menu screen for the Bethesda video game Starfield, which some people saw as a sign of rushed development, a poor working environment and lazy game design. The menu screen leaked online in mid-August 2023 and sparked criticism over the following days, also inspiring people to come to the game's defense and create parody redesigns and memes of the menu screen that strip it of its original minimalism.

Background

On August 17th, 2023, a screenshot of the main menu of Starfield (the 2023 open-world sci-fi game by Bethesda) was leaked online to sites including the /r/Starfield^[1] subreddit, garnering over 2,500 upvotes in five days (shown below). The main menu features a simple, minimalist design similar to other Bethesda games such as Skyrim.

While the menu screen attracted a lot of neutral or positive responses online,^[2][3] criticism also began the day it was leaked. That day, X^[4] user @OmoiteS posted the screen, writing, "Starfield menu screen got leaked, looks about as empty, generic and boring as the procedurally generated 999 planets in the game," garnering over 430 likes in five days (shown below).

Developments

On August 18th, 2023, the post was screenshotted and reposted by X^[5][6] users @XxiKGixX and @JezCorden (shown below, left), who criticized @OmoiteS for complaining about something as insignificant as a menu screen, garnering over 320 and 5,200 likes, respectively, in four days.

That day, X^[7] user @TGAutumnXBL posted a compilation of other Bethesda game menus with similarly minimalist designs, writing, "To the weirdos 'concerned' about how Starfield’s menu screen looks, did you have a problem with any of these?," garnering over 5,500 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Mark "Grummz" Kern's Criticism

On August 19th, 2023, X^[8] user @Grummz, aka Mark Kern, the former Team Lead for World of Warcraft, posted a criticism of the menu screen, writing, "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," garnering over 3,300 likes in three days (shown below).

The post by @Grummz was screenshotted and shared to the /r/Gamingcirclejerk^[9] subreddit that day, garnering over 1,800 upvotes in three days.

Also on August 19th, X^[10] user @PeterOvo5 called the criticism "disrespectful," especially coming from a "veteran developer," garnering over 5,100 likes in three days (shown below, left). Later that day, X^[11] user @thicc_stick_boi made a post criticizing Grummz, garnering over 2,100 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Pete Hines, Bethesda Head of Publishing, Responds

On August 20th, 2023, X^[12] user @jassem73 tagged Pete Hines (the head of publishing at Bethesda) on @Grummz's post, writing, "next time you and the lovely folks over at BGS instead of rushing to make a game with many systems, factions, choices and ways to play I would urge you to only focus on the title screen so you guys won't appear to be 'hasty' or 'simply didn't care.'" In response, Hines made a post to X^[13] that would gain over 10,000 likes in two days, writing:

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 different is highly unprofessional coming from another “dev”

Online Response

Starfield Menu Parodies

In response to the controversy, some people began posting parody redesigns of the Starfield menu, often cluttering it with images and text and stripping away its minimalist design (similar to overstimulation or sludge content).

For example, on August 19th, 2023, X^[14] user @boulderpunch1 posted a redesign that gained over 910 likes in three days (shown below). On August 20th, X^[15] user @xboxBG posted a parody that gained over 550 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References