Fans are scared that they won't be able to play Starfield as intended after the PC requirements for the game were just made public.
Starfield is slated for release on September 6 for Xbox Series X/S, PC, and early access is accessible through pre-orders. However, a fairly terrible hardware need has lately been discovered by PC gamers.
Bethesda, the game's developer, has published Starfield's system requirements on Steam, indicating that a powerful PC will be necessary to fully enjoy the game on its highest settings. While this isn't surprising given the nature of modern games, what has caught many off guard is that Starfield will be the first PC game to necessitate an SSD (Solid State Drive), rather than just ample hard-drive space.
Unsurprisingly, this particular requirement has left fans with some worries. Although the game can technically be run without an SSD, players can expect to encounter lengthy loading screens and a host of other issues. Essentially, attempting to play Starfield without an SSD is not recommended.
According to a Reddit user on the Starfield subreddit, "loading times would be the least of your worries if you try to run this game off a hard drive. It's most likely going to be a horrible stuttering mess due to the sheer amount of data that needs to be loaded on the fly while traversing the game world." It appears that traditional hard drives simply lack the necessary speed to handle the extensive data utilization found in modern games.
"Sorry man, it'll probably be a true requirement and an HDD will be a bad time," another Reddit member adds.
Starfield lists an SSD as a minimum requirement, therefore it is safe to expect that the performance of the game on an HDD will be at best subpar. In order to properly enjoy the next game, PC players without an SSD may want to think about making an update.