Yeah, I once heard that in the video game industry, you start pre-production of a title about a year before you get started with proper development (a.k.a. “production”).

So, pre-production means brainstorming the game concept, theme, maybe initial concept art, maybe some prototypes etc…

But to quote Wikipedia:

The game entered pre-production by 2018, formally being announced during Bethesda’s E3 2018 conference. The game entered active production in 2023 following Starfield’s launch.

So, presumably they kicked in pre-production for a few weeks in 2018, specifically to produce that trailer. And then put it back aside and didn’t really get started until 2022 or so. 🙃