*Starfield* PS5 Pro Crashes Fixed, but the Real Test Comes Next Week

This round of updates for Starfield on the PS5 platform feels a bit like an emergency hotfix battle meant to stop the bleeding. Bethesda has already pushed out an urgent patch for PS5 Pro players today, with one very clear core goal: fixing the issue where the game would crash immediately after enabling Pro enhancement settings. For players who already picked up a PS5 Pro and were ready to experience this space adventure at higher specs, the patch hasn’t arrived particularly early—but at least it addresses the most serious problem affecting gameplay first.

Judging from the official statement, the issue has not been fully resolved yet. Bethesda also confirmed that the crashes and freezes currently affecting the standard PS5 version will require another hotfix, which is expected to go live next week. This is important information, because it means Starfield’s stability fixes on PS5 are being rolled out in stages rather than bundled into a single all-in-one update. Players can understand this approach, but the anxiety over the experience itself will not simply disappear because of it.

What concerns me more is that this fix sends a very clear signal: what the current version needs most is not new content, but stable performance. This is especially true for a long-form, immersion-heavy RPG like this—once crashes or freezes happen frequently, the sense of immersion is instantly broken. No matter how strong the visuals and performance may be, it becomes very hard to sustain positive word of mouth. Bethesda thanked players for their concentrated feedback, which shows that the community’s error reports, reproductions, and complaints really are helping speed up the patch process. But whether the follow-up patch can truly eliminate the major pain points will still depend on how the standard PS5 version performs once the fix goes live next week.

If you’re currently planning to jump into Starfield on PS5, my advice is straightforward. PS5 Pro users can wait for the update to finish, watch community feedback for a bit, and then enable the Pro enhancement settings for a short test session; standard PS5 users would be better off waiting a little longer—at least until next week’s hotfix is live—before seeing whether the crashes and freezes have been noticeably reduced. The worst thing when buying a game is not that patches arrive slowly, but that one issue gets fixed only for another to appear. Right now, Starfield is still at the stage where it needs to win back trust through real-world performance.

For Bethesda, this hotfix is only the first exchange, not the endgame. The shortcomings in the PS5 version’s post-launch experience are already out in the open. From here on, players will not just be looking at whether there is a patch, but whether the game is actually stable to play after the patch. If next week’s fix for the standard PS5 version is solid, Starfield may still be able to regain momentum; if the problems continue to recur, then the comments section and community sentiment will only keep turning up the pressure.