Starfield features real-time pickpocketing, and it looks tense af

The release of the highly anticipated sci-fi RPG, Starfield is nearly upon us and as we edge closer to its release date, new details are arriving thick and fast.

When Bethesda showcased the ‘Starfield Direct’ presentation there was a lot of information to digest during its 45-minute deepdive, so you’d be forgiven if some details were missed. I know that I had to watch the event twice over, which only got me even more hyped for its release.

Check out the Starfield gameplay trailer below!

One additional detail that was shared recently on Reddit is the ability to pickpocket unsuspecting NPCs in real-time and it looks incredibly tense.

“This is the first Bethesda game that features pickpocketing in real-time,” said OkPain2022, opening up the discussion on the thread. Previous games such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout did feature pickpocketing, however, the gameplay would pause during its process.

In Starfield, when pickpocketing an unsuspecting NPC, the gameplay will not pause and it will continue in real-time. During the Starfield gameplay reveal in 2022 (as seen in the video above at just after five minutes), we also saw that Starfield features lockpicking in real-time too.

Real-time pickpocketing means that I’m going to get caught more than not and my intergalactic sticky finger shenanigans will soon be over. As Reddit user HiNooNDooD1544 so eloquently put it: “I was an adventurer like you until I took a bullet to the knee,” and that will be the end of my pickpocketing career.

In related news, some pre-orders are being cancelled and Starfield fans are feeling understandably concerned, and it seems that Xbox chief Phil Spencer is already playing Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG.

Starfield will be released on 6 September 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S. Unless you pre-order the Premium or Constellation Edition, in which case it will be 1 September. Starfield will also launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.