Starfield finally lands PS5 release date, along with new story DLC and Free Lanes update which – among other things – adds a Milliewhale pet

After plenty of rumours and rumblings, Bethesda has today announced that Starfield is coming to PlayStation 5.

In addition, to coincide with its arrival on Sony’s console, the studio has also detailed Starfield’s next major content drops, which will be available across all platforms.

Let’s start with that PS5 release date. Starfield will make its PlayStation 5 debut on 7th April. So, in just under one month’s time.

As for those PS5 features, the studio has assured that Starfield will make the most of the hardware, with players able to enjoy the DualSense’s adaptive triggers, lightbar, touchpad and “more” when the game comes to PlayStation. If you are a PS5 Pro owner, meanwhile, you will be able to select between a Pro Performance Mode or a Pro Visual Mode, depending on what you prefer to prioritise.

Starfield will retail for £44.99 for the standard edition, £60.99 for the Premium version.

Also on 7th April, Bethesda will be releasing two content updates. The first of these is known as Terran Armada, which is a new story DLC that will allow players to “shape the future of humanity in space”, while coming face to face with “robotic forces”.

Essentially this DLC adds another questline to Starfield, and introduces new locations, as well as new characters to chat with, enemies to annihilate and – of course – systems to explore. Terran Armada will retail for £8.99/$10, but is included in Starfield’s premium editions.

Then we have the Free Lanes update, which as the name suggests is free for all users. This is a rather chunky update indeed, and adds a myriad of fan-requested features from guinea pig-like creatures for your outpost and a Milliewhale pet (which I have to admit is pretty cute), to new encounters, resources, dungeons, crew members, and a new land vehicle known as the Moon Jumper.

The Starfield team has also implemented a new cruise system, which looks quite handy. One of the upcoming improvements I find most useful, though (beyond the Milliewhale pet), is cross-outpost storage, which does exactly what it sounds like it does, and honestly I am surprised Bethesda hadn’t included it before now.

I actually took part in a Q&A with Bethesda and Starfield exec Tim Lamb ahead of today’s public reveal, and asked if this update was basically Starfield 2.0. While Lamb said he wouldn’t frame it that way, he did say this: “We’ve incrementally improved a lot of systems and added substantial content, and I think this is the best version of Starfield.”

In Eurogamer’s original Starfield review, our Chris noted the game “pairs near-impossible breadth with a classic Bethesda aptitude for systemic physics, magnetic sidequests, and weird vignettes”. However, he believed that by “sacrificing direct exploration for the sake of sheer scale”, there was “nothing to bind it together”.

Maybe next month’s updates will address all that. So, will you be jumping back into Starfield for another trip through space?