Starfield players joke that the game is "literally unplayable" after blink-and-you'll-miss-it typo discovery

Starfield
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Starfield players are continuing a beloved tradition after discovering a typo within the game's latest trailer.

An eagle-eyed viewer took to the game's subreddit after they noticed the error, which you can spot for yourself if you head to the 45-minute mark in the recent Starfield Direct. In a section of the video discussing the breadth of weapons and mods that you'll be able to get your hands on, one character fills the screen with a beefy-looking grenade launcher.

There's no chance you spotted this at the time, but the text on the barrel of the weapon contains the typo. As well as safety warnings, what looks to be the weapon's name and material composition, there's a line that describes it as "state of the at."

Starfield: State of the at from r/Starfield

It's so elusive as to barely count as a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' moment - which is probably why it's only been discovered more than a month later - but Starfield players are happy to poke fun at the error. Following on from a rich tradition of players jokingly overreacting to minor mistakes, some parts of the community are now labelling the game "unplayable" as a result of the typo.

In the comments beneath the post, some players claim they're cancelling their pre-orders over the mistake, while others are uninstalling Skyrim. Others still suggest that the typo is reminiscent of a New England accent, and that the launcher was clearly made in Boston, MA.

Realistically, if this is the worst mistake that Starfield throws at us, it'll be a truly blessed launch. As one commenter points out by referencing Fallout 76, Bethesda has something of a track record with buggy launches. While Microsoft seems to be confident that that won't be the case this time around, with 1000 planets to worry about, I'd be very surprised if we don't see some issues around release.

In the last few weeks, a Starfield sleuth spent 200 hours piecing together the entire skill tree.

Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

Read more
Starfield space combat, with a distant vessel exploding
Former Starfield dev says the space RPG "could have existed without those" surplus loading screens, with many added after he left production
Starfield
Bethesda breaks silence as Starfield fans hope for an update: "We have a lot of exciting things planned for the game this year"
Avowed
A search engine mix-up had Avowed players declare that an Indian politician was "John Avowed" – and they've already made him in-game
Using archery to kill someone in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sees Skyrim's iconic guards and raises them a guy with an arrow in his head: "To the knee? That's nothing. You could go dancing the next day with a scratch like that"
Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds PC players claim that fixing a random typo in the game's files actually helps its poor performance issues
Skyrim
Skyrim's iconic opening was done by Starfield's quest lead, but only after he was brutally called out for "everything we're doing wrong" in front of the Bethesda team
Latest in RPG
Baldur's Gate 3 screenshot showing Astarion, a pale male elf with short curly white hair and red eyes, looking over his shoulder with a smirk on his face
Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion actor comes face to face with what might just be the best merch to come of the RPG yet – a 5-foot Funko Pop figure of his character
The Witcher 3 screenshot of Geralt
Avowed and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 tap into the same thing that makes The Witcher 3 so compelling – and it's something I'm always looking for in RPGs
Atomfall
Atomfall boss "very familiar" with Baldur's Gate 3 director's frustrations with publishers, as he recalls horror advice that games are "faster to make" if you "make fewer bugs"
Official art for Hopetown, featuring a group of miners looking towards the camera.
The battle to steal the Disco Elysium successor's spotlight continues as former and current ZA/UM devs reveal teasers for their new RPGs simultaneously
Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Zero Dawn's Aloy is the star of Sony's leaked AI-powered character prototype, which allows users to ask questions to an unsettling, emotionless version of the protagonist
Atomfall screenshot
Fallout: New Vegas is a big inspiration for Atomfall, which is why you’ll be able to kill every NPC in post-apocalyptic Cumbria
Latest in News
Baldur's Gate 3 screenshot showing Astarion, a pale male elf with short curly white hair and red eyes, looking over his shoulder with a smirk on his face
Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion actor comes face to face with what might just be the best merch to come of the RPG yet – a 5-foot Funko Pop figure of his character
Drop
New horror movie starring White Lotus and Yellowstone actors gets a great Rotten Tomatoes score as early reactions call it the "perfect date night movie"
Lois and Peter in Family Guy season 23
After 11 years, Family Guy suddenly brings back a deep-cut character for season 23
Key art for Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE showing the Prince rolling a Katamari as the King of All Cosmos sits at a livestreaming setup.
The first all-new Katamari Damacy game in almost 8 years is trapped in Apple Arcade jail, and I can only hope it follows in Hello Kitty Island Adventure's footsteps to eventually escape
No Rest for the Wicked
Ori and the Blind Forest developer is now "fully independent" after "months of negotiation" with what remained of its gutted publisher
The cast of Thunderbolts
Marvel fans are revealing who they'd like to see added to the Thunderbolts lineup, from Moon Knight to a major Hulk villain