It’s been little more than a week since Starfield was given a launch date – and the upcoming Starfield Direct showcase was confirmed – and now we’re already starting to see age ratings for Bethesda’s upcoming space-based RPG appear online? It looks like this is all really happening, isn’t it. Interestingly, when it comes to Starfield, the one thing that isn’t happening is ‘it’. You know that thing two consenting adults do sometimes? The one that, if you’re not using protection, can end up in babies being made? Well, according to the Starfield age rating from the Australian Government, that’s not happening at all.
Yes, you’re reading that right – and we’re sorry? The Australian Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts has slapped a “Restricted 18+” age rating on Starfield – and confirmed that there is categorically no sex in the game.
Interestingly, though, it does look like there’s going to be nudity with “very mild impact” – but we can only imagine that this will be on the same level as what we see in other Bethesda game series like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls.
Unlike Skyrim (which PEGI gave an 18 rating due to it’s violence against defenceless characters and the “motiveless killing of innocent chracters”) and Fallout 4 (which PEGI gave an 18 rating due to the frequency of strong violence), Starfield has been given the equivalent of an 18 rating by the Australian Government due to its’ interactive drug use. You can check out the full rating right here.
We don’t know how often you’ll stumble across scenes of drug use – and the instances of interactive drug use mentioned – but one of the Starfield planets we know about so far is home to a city built around the drug Aurora (which takes advantage of the psychotropic effects of a specific type of fish found on a planet in the Volii system, if you’re wondering). So, we can imagine there will be several similar locations scattered across the galaxies shown on the map.
We know this is “heartbreaking news” to some of you, like Reddit user ‘Dull-Caterpillar3153‘ who has shared the Austrailian Government’s rating online, but it’s not quite as surprising as you might think. Adult content like sex and nudity isn’t really something we’ve seen from recent Bethesda games and, if we’re honest, we don’t think Starfield will be missing much without it.
Heartbreaking news. The Australian rating confirms there is no sex in Starfield. from Starfield
The concept of including “interactive drug use” is interesting, but we can imagine that this will mean there’s a more graphic depiction of using an addictive substance – when compared to Fallout 4, for example. You can get addicted to substances in that particular game, but there’s no visual representation of your character actually taking said drugs. So, we suppose that’s why it isn’t explicitly mentioned in the age rating justification from PEGI.
However, we just don’t know for sure; this is all ultimately speculation. Thankfully, the Starfield Direct date is nearing and we do have a Starfield release date to look forward to. So, we should be finding out just what’s going on in space soon enough. For now though, we know it’s not all sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Just drugs, by the looks of it.