Starfield's PS5 Performance Issues Spark Refund Wave Among Players

Bethesda’s Starfield appears to be facing a rough reception on PS5 after its recent launch. That’s because players have been reporting serious performance issues, with some even requesting refunds from PlayStation. Per affected players, Starfield is struggling to maintain stability on Sony’s gaming console, with frequent crashes being highlighted as the main problem.

Starfield PS5 performance issues trigger refund requests right after launch

Folks over at Eurogamer first spotted a Reddit thread full of complaints, where Starfield players describe crashes hampering the experience every few minutes (via The Gamer). The reported issues reportedly didn’t get fixed even after multiple attempts to resolve them.

Players say standard troubleshooting steps have not helped. These include switching between performance modes, deleting and reinstalling the game, and even wiping save data entirely. Despite these efforts, the problems reportedly continue.

What makes the situation worse is that the issues are not limited to base PS5 hardware. Some PS5 Pro users are also reporting similar crashes, suggesting the problem may not be limited to performance tiers alone. No wonder players are frustrated. Some are now even turning to PlayStation Support to request refunds. In some cases, users claim they are unable to progress at all due to constant crashes.

At the time of writing this, Starfield remains available on the PlayStation Store and has not been delisted like Cyberpunk 2077. User ratings also show a mixed but not overwhelmingly negative sentiment, suggesting experiences vary widely. In other words, some players appear satisfied with the experience, while others are dealing with repeated crashes that break gameplay entirely.

As reports continue to surface, it remains to be seen whether Bethesda will address the stability issues quickly, or if frustration among PS5 players will continue to grow. All that said, if you are eyeing a refund for a bad experience, it’s not that easy, to say the least. Speaking of Starfield, let’s not forget that the game has also received “Free Lanes” update last week that adds seamless planet travel and a major overhaul.