Bethesda has quietly removed Russian language support from its upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield (opens in new tab).

The change was revealed by a nondescript entry in the changelog of the Steam store page on SteamDB (opens in new tab). Steam page as of March 29.

March 29:

April 11:

There has been no official announcement from Bethesda as to why Russian language support was removed, which of course has led to speculation on Reddit. While some are optimistic that it is a moral stance against a militaristic and authoritarian regime, the theory that it is simply to cut costs is more dominant: due to international sanctions against the Russian government, the game will not be sold in Russia anyway, so there is no point in supporting Russian language (and paying the necessary translation costs) makes no sense.

There is also backlash against the move. Some Redditors believe that Bethesda is punishing Russian individuals for the actions of the Russian government.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, numerous gaming and high-tech companies severed ties with Russia; in July 2022, the Russian government announced plans to develop its own "national game engine (open in new tab)," and in December, the Russian version of Electronic Arts (open in new tab)," kicking off the idea of establishing a "Russian version of Electronic Arts.

The situation is somewhat clouded by the fact that Bethesda's other upcoming blockbuster, Redfall, still supports Russian. However, the changes to the Steam store page are separate from the changes to the game itself.

We have contacted Bethesda about the reason for the change and will update if we hear back; Starfield is currently scheduled to launch on September 6.