Bethesda finally brought Starfield to PlayStation on April 7, and the reception has been rougher than anyone hoped. Reports of frequent crashes started trickling in almost immediately after launch, and by the first weekend they had turned into a flood.
The crash reports are piling up fast
The r/Starfield subreddit has a thread with the blunt title "Base PS5 crashing getting out of hand" that has been growing steadily since launch. Players describe the game locking up completely, requiring a forced system restart to recover. This isn't a soft crash back to the PS5 home screen. The console just freezes.
Digital Foundry confirmed the problem in their technical breakdown, writing: "Unfortunately, both PS5 and PS5 Pro crashed somewhat regularly during testing, a phenomenon that didn't affect the Xbox Series release on launch. When crashing, the game locks up and becomes unresponsive, requiring a forced restart at the system level. We observed this behaviour across multiple modes and configurations, so there's no obvious suggestion on how to avoid these issues."
Here's the thing: this isn't universal. Some players have logged 10, 20, even 30-plus hours without a single crash. Others are hitting hard freezes every 10 to 15 minutes. The inconsistency is part of what makes it so difficult to pin down.
What seems to trigger it
Push Square ran their own tests on PS5 Pro and found the crashes appearing across all three graphics modes (Visuals, Enhanced, and Performance) when the frame rate was left uncapped. Capping to 60fps reduced crashes during city exploration, but hard freezes still occurred out in the wilderness.
Disabling PSSR 2 (the PS5 Pro's AI-driven upscaling feature) through the system display settings appeared to stop crashes entirely in their testing. That said, this workaround only applies to PS5 Pro owners and doesn't help anyone on base hardware.
Players in the Reddit thread have been experimenting with their own fixes with mixed results:
- Disabling all autosaves and saving manually appears to help some players
- Uninstalling the Shattered Space DLC reportedly resolved crashes for at least one PS5 Pro user who had been crashing every 10 minutes
- Turning off PSSR 2 at the system level has helped some PS5 Pro players
- Sticking to 60fps rather than 30fps or 40fps modes seems to reduce (but not eliminate) freeze frequency
The crashes seem particularly common during planet exploration and scanning, outpost construction, and fast travel between locations. One PS5 Pro player reported the game freezing every single time they pulled out the scanner on a planet surface.
warning
Forcing a system restart repeatedly during crashes can interrupt auto-save data. If you're experiencing frequent freezes, consider saving manually before any major exploration or fast travel.
A late port with a familiar problem
Starfield arrived on PS5 nearly three years after its Xbox Series and PC debut in September 2023. The Xbox version had its share of instability at launch, but nothing approaching what PS5 players are dealing with now. The fact that a port with this much additional development time shipped in this state is genuinely hard to explain.
Bethesda has not issued any statement on the crashes as of this writing, and the game has not received a post-launch patch. The key here is that without an official acknowledgment, players have no timeline for a fix and no guidance beyond community workarounds. For the latest tips on navigating Starfield's systems while you wait for a patch, browse more guides covering the game's mechanics and builds.
What players should know right now
The experience is genuinely split. Plenty of players are having smooth sessions, particularly those who stuck to 60fps from the start or avoided certain activities like outpost building. Others have hit a wall where the game is functionally unplayable.
If you're on PS5 Pro, turning off PSSR 2 in the system settings (not just the in-game options) is the most consistently reported workaround. Disabling autosave is worth trying on both hardware versions. Uninstalling Shattered Space is a more drastic step, but some players swear by it.
A patch is the only real solution here, and Bethesda will need to move quickly. With the latest reviews of the PS5 version already noting the technical problems alongside genuine praise for the game itself, a fix would go a long way toward salvaging what should have been a strong debut on Sony's platform.
