Starfield release date and times
Early access for Starfield starts in less than a day, however those who didn't pre-order and even those who are still subscribed to Xbox Game Pass with "Day One"(day #1 being the official release date) access will have to wait 5 days longer than those who pre-ordered the 'Premium' or higher tier editions of the game.
To paint a better picture here are the differences between pre-order editions as well as the Global Launch(Early Access) times with a global map including timezones:
Which is always concerning, on Steam you only refund pre-ordered games up until the day of the official release or within the 2-hour window Steam allows players to 'try' the game out. IMO, it never seemed like a long enough time, but at least you have the ability to return the game if you end up disliking it within that very narrow window of time.
Xbox has a very vague refund policy regarding their Digital pre-order returns most if it sounds like a hard no with the exception for special cases given the line:
All sales of Digital Game Products are considered final, but we understand there may be extenuating circumstances.
The Early Access "Global Release" Times + different purchase tiers of Starfield and what they include.
Game pre-orders have always been a nasty system to lock customers into their purchase, and unless a game receives mass criticism that inevitably pressures the publishers/developers + platforms like Steam and Microsoft who sell the game into allowing refunds, allows for an easy way for these companies to entice any excited gamer into an early purchase they wouldn't have made otherwise.
Ahem, sorry for the tangent but reading Bethesda's official post as well as their other posts talking about the 1) Global Release, 2) Early Access, 3)Day One Access, and 4) Launch Day just all sound like their splitting hairs with their marketing terminology.
FYI, I numbered the terms above to see if you could guess which terms meant the same thing - there's 2 pairs that mean the same thing. 1 and 2 are referring to the August 31st release, while 3 and 4 are referring to the release for standard editions/non-preorders 5 days later. Makes total sense, right?
