Early access for Starfield began on August 31, 2023 (evening in the US) / September 1, 2023 (morning in Europe/Asia) , depending on your time zone.

Quick Scoop: When is early access for Starfield?

  • Starfield’s early access release date was officially September 1, 2023 , but because of a global unlock, many regions could start on August 31, 2023.
  • The early access window opened at about 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET on August 31 in the US, which corresponded to 1 AM BST / 2 AM CEST on September 1 in Europe.
  • To get early access, players needed the Premium Edition or Constellation Edition , or the Premium Upgrade on Xbox/PC.

Key times (examples)

  • US (Pacific): August 31, 5 PM PT.
  • US (Eastern): August 31, 8 PM ET.
  • UK: September 1, 1 AM BST.
  • Central Europe: September 1, 2 AM CEST.
  • Australia (AEST): September 1, 10 AM AEST.

How people were talking about it

On forums, a lot of players were confused because they saw “September 1” or “August 31” listed as the date but didn’t notice the exact global unlock time , leading to many “Is early access live yet?” threads. Others pointed out that you still had to own the right edition to play in that early window, even if preloads were already available.

“Try again in 12 hours… that’s when Early Access begins 🚀” was a typical reply to people checking too early.

Is this still relevant now?

  • Starfield’s early access period is over ; the game fully launched globally on September 5–6, 2023 , depending on region and platform.
  • Today, those early access timing details mainly matter for historical, trivia, or community discussion (e.g., “Where were you when Starfield early access dropped?”).

TL;DR: Early access for Starfield started August 31, 2023, 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET (US) and September 1, 2023, early morning in Europe and other regions, for Premium/Constellation owners.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.