Players wouldn't be enjoying Starfield this September if the game was coming out on PS5 according to Pete Hines during the ongoing Microsoft Activision FTC case.
Starfield has been at the forefront of arguments against the Microsoft Activision deal. While a huge noise has been made about the possibility of Call of Duty going exclusive, Microsoft denies that would be the case. The fact that Starfield will only be on Xbox after Microsoft bought Bethesda has players doubting Microsoft's word (well Redfall too, but in hindsight, I think PlayStation owners are quite happy they didn't get that).
However, Bethesda's head of publishing Pete Hines took to the stands and claimed (via transcription from Derek Strickland) that Starfield "would not be coming out in 9 weeks if we were supporting an entirely different platform". Hines also stated that having the game exclusive to one platform "has been a big benefit to that team". Interestingly, Hine's also stated that a single platform approach for streamlining development is "literally the reason why I recommended exclusivity" for Deathloop, which was announced as a PS5 exclusive before the Microsoft and Bethesda deal was announced, and had a one-year exclusivity window on PS5.
