In just over a month, both Xbox and PlayStation have released their two flagship titles: Starfield and Spider-Man 2, respectively. Both titles are possibly the most anticipated games by fans of these two companies, and they have also received excellent reviews from specialized critics.
However, there is another characteristic that these two AAA games also share: the popularity of their bugs on the Internet. Since the release of Starfield and Spider-Man 2, or even shortly before they hit the market, dozens of videos and images showcasing bugs from both games have gone viral on social media. These include issues with physics, graphic errors, and gameplay problems.
To shed some light on this situation, Paul Tassi, a writer for Forbes magazine, wanted to share his experience with both games and assess how much truth there is in the popular belief that both games have many bugs.
In his article, Tassi claims that the belief that there are many bugs in both games is being “grossly exaggerated” for two main reasons: we are in the age of social media, which means that if something funny or curious happens, it will likely go viral and others will try to replicate it, and also because we are immersed in a console war created by the fans of the companies (some people have too much free time).
In this way, between the humor that usually circulates on social media platforms like Twitter or TikTok, and the fact that many users share bugs as a way to say, “Hey, your console’s game is terrible, look at its flaws,” we have dozens of videos circulating on the Internet with various glitches… but they are quite rare.
In addition to what Paul Tassi mentioned, I also believe that, at least in the case of Starfield, there is a context that can explain (not justify) the bad reputation of the bugs. Those of us who have played Bethesda games at their launches (and even years later) have encountered dozens, and even hundreds, of bugs because these are enormous games created with one of the most patched game engines in the history of video games.
Everything adds up in the end, but both Tassi and many other players attest that Starfield and Spider-Man 2 have been released with very few bugs, and both will be patched without problems in the coming months. So, remember: your social media feeds are never a faithful summary of reality.
