Starfield leaker booked with felony charge after sharing 45 minutes of gameplay online

With the launch of Starfield finally on the horizon, fans are clamouring to play the highly anticipated sci-fi RPG, but it seems that some are willing to go to illegal lengths to acquire the game.

Starfield has been over 20 years in the making, so it's understandable that the Bethesda RPG is high on the shopping list of many Xbox and PC fans. After all, the Xbox Series X|S has been starved of a constant flurry of top-tier first-party exclusives and Starfield is the game that fans have been waiting for.

Check out the Starfield gameplay trailer below.

It was recently confirmed that Starfield has gone gold, which means that it has concluded its final phase of development and is ready to ship to retail. Though as we know with modern-day gaming, we can still expect a series of post-launch updates to iron out any previously unforeseen kinks as Bethesda aims to make Starfield its least buggy launch.

Depending on which version of Starfield you pre-order, you could be playing the game in a week from now. Some people simply can't wait that long though - resorting to illegal tactics.

As reported by Kotaku, Darin Harris uploaded 45 minutes of Starfield gameplay online after acquiring an early copy before allegedly trying to sell copies of the game to other fans. Reports are yet to confirm where these copies came from.

He's now facing felony charges. Harris was charged at the Shelby County Tennessee Sheriff’s Office yesterday, four days after the 45-minute gameplay video was uploaded to YouTube (which has since been taken down).

The Sheriff's office website details that the felony charge is for $2,500 to $10,000 worth of stolen property, a misdemeanour charge of up to $1,000 for harbouring stolen property as well as an additional misdemeanour charge for possession of marijuana.

Starfield has a release date of 6 September 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S. Unless you’ve pre-ordered the Premium or Constellation Edition. If so, then your release date is 1 September. Starfield will also launch on Xbox Game Pass.