Want to come at this from a slightly different angle. This is an opinionated pre-release preview/pseudo-review based on years spent playing every Bethesda North game since Morrowind, and having over 1000 hours in Star Citizen. Its hard to say anything with complete certainty, but I can certainly place bets. Lets go: Multiplayer: Highly likely Star Citizen is better. This should be a no brainer, as Star Citizen has always been intended to be a multiplayer game. I know some of you will want to point out that Starfield will likely get multiplayer through mods, and while that's probably correct, we can't be sure, and even if it does get some amount of multiplayer eventually, its likely not going to be better than the multiplayer Star Citizen currently has. Story: Highly likely Starfield is better. While the total story of StarCitizen remains unrevealed, and Starfield's story is only loosely hinted at in trailers, I feel confident that Bethesda has this. Bethesda are excellent storytellers, and people are still combing through every Elder Scrolls game trying to find the tiniest clues to decipher the meaning of events like the disappearance of the Dwemer or the nature of the Daedric Princes. What's been revealed for Star Citizen has been lackluster at best in comparison. World Building: Somewhat likely Starfield is better: StarCitizen does a good job with World building - it does. The different worlds feel like separate distinct places. The ship manufacturers are a neat deception (they're all made by CIG). CIG is not bad at world building. That said, this is Bethesda. They are probably the best world builders in gaming. I don't want it to sound like Star Citizen isn't in the running here, they are, but against Bethesda I imagine they're going to come up short in the world building department. Depth in 2023: Highly likely Starfield is better: StarCitizen has some degree of depth, and its multiplayer which helps a lot, but I have to give this to Starfield. They're different types of games, so the comparison isn't perfect, but StarCitizen has a LOT of repetition in it. You spend a lot of time smacking rocks and staring at your quantum guages. StarCitizen is an MMO - but at least for 2023 it is an extremely shallow MMO, and we're looking a game from the makers of the deepest single player experiences out there. This goes to Starfield. End Game/Longevity Highly Likely Starfield is better: This is easy, as StarCitizen has no real end game, and Bethesda puts hundreds of hours of content into their games, which is then supplemented by thousands more hours through mods. Hopefully this will change in the future as Star Citizen gets closer to a release, but for now, definitely advantage Starfield. Polish Somewhat likely Star Citizen is better: I know I know, how can I say that about a game that's as buggy as Star Citizen... well... because bugginess is a separate category, and if you separate buginess from polish, then polish is something different, and to me its the immersive qualities that Star Citizen does so well. The cleverness with which so many things are implemented, the outside compartments on the Gladius, the screen system which is customizeable, even the plethora of ships (yes they need to stop working on ships as other areas need work, but for this category it counts). CIG loves to gold plate everything. Bugginess Highly likely Starfield is better: Bethesda is known for releasing games that are just riddled with bugs, but even the buggiest Bethesda releases are less buggy than Star Citizen. Advantage Starfield. Overall Action Somewhat likely Star Citizen is better: Bethesda games are not known for their perfect twitch action. I'm saying "somewhat" only because StarCitizen's action isn't exactly perfect, and because this is a new game and I want to give it the benefit of the doubt, but if I had to place my bets I'd say that Starfield's twitch action won't be as good as Star Citizen's. FPS Combat: Somewhat likely StarCitizen is better: As before Bethesda games have never been known for crisp twitch action, and while Star Citizen's action isn't exactly flawless, I imagine its better than what Starfield will offer - especially considering multiplayer. Ship Based Combat: Highly likely Star Citizen is better: I mean, c'mon. This was always going to go to Star Citizen, which has - IMO - very good ship to ship combat. If Star Citizen does anything right, its the ship based combat. Starfield will have it, but I imagine it will feel clumsy and almost cartoonish in comparison. Characters: Highly likely Starfield is better: I mean, definitely Starfield. There will be more characters, their quests will be longer and more involved, they'll likely be far more life like. There will be stories that you'll remember and characters that you love or hate. Side Quests Highly likely Starfield is better: Starfield will have side quests that 95% of players will never even see, most of the game will be side quests, and they'll be decent. They'll be more than "Pick up that package and take it there" type quests. Bethesda is very good at this. Character Creation Somewhat likely Starfield is better: Starfield's character creator just looks better. Emotional Impact Somewhat likely Star Citizen is better: Bethesda games are more notable in their world building than in their emotional stories. And Star Citizen has ganking. Ganking is very impactful emotionally. So Star Citizen wins in emotional impact, even if its not for the reasons you'd expect. Which is the better game in 2023 Highly likely Starfield is better: Starfield is done, and Star Citizen has no end game (and not much of a beginning or middle either really). Unless we all got it wrong and Starfield is Bethesda's worst release like ever, Starfield will be a better game, at least in 2023. Which is the better game eventually Indeterminate: I have, in this post, gone out on a limb and rated an unfinished game versus a finished one, but even I'm not going to pretend that I know with any certainty which game will eventually be better. Could be Star Citizen, assuming it starts to improve and isn't killed off by a surprise competitor. Could be Starfield, which will get better with time through mods - and even limited multiplayer support. This will mostly depend on CIG. Will they change focus, from milking whales to delivering quality content? I sure hope so.