Starfield, the highly anticipated space RPG from Bethesda Game Studios, is facing a significant bug that leads to increased game crashes, especially for players with long-running save files who haven't started a New Game+. The issue has been identified as being linked to the game's dynamic form ID generation logic, which instead of recycling old IDs, retains them. This causes save file bloat, and when too many IDs accumulate, it reduces the number of available IDs for new in-game objects like planets and items, leading to crashes. Players have reported crashes after 200-800 hours of gameplay. While a New Game+ can reset the system, many players may not want to restart, making the bug a serious concern for the Starfield community. Fortunately, Bethesda seems to be working on a fix that could be released soon to address the problem.

What options do players have if they encounter the save file crash bug in Starfield?

Players experiencing the crash bug in Starfield can start New Game+ to reset the ID count, begin a completely new save, or temporarily stop playing until Bethesda releases a fix. For those unwilling to wait or restart, it might be best to put the game aside for the time being.