Our site owner Josh called this one almost a year ago, though really, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise.
I first heard that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was getting an anniversary edition for the new generation of console hardware via messenger from my brother. His exact words were, “That PS5 game you’ve been waiting for.”
The sarcasm doesn’t translate well over text, but that line is a pretty apt summary of my own reaction. At this point, Skyrim is just a meme for the gaming community, which is a bit of a shame because it’s still a really good game. But considering that it has to hold the Guinness record for number of devices it is playable on (editor’s note: It doesn’t), I think that its legacy is more about how persistently its been marketed rather than the actual quality of the game itself.
But I’m not gonna lie: I would totally buy a PS5 version of Skyrim. Bethesda has my number and they know it. Although there are plenty of other games that I tell myself I’m not going to buy ever again (mostly coming from series like Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry), Skyrim is always still engaging, though begrudgingly so. Even though I know the broad strokes by heart, and even though I never bother to finish the main questline, and even though I always end up with the same character build and stats, I’m a fanboy. I hate myself a little bit for saying this, but I’m a fanboy.
But this time around, it seems my fanboy devotion might actually be rewarded. Although I was fully willing to spend what I was hoping would be no more than $30/$40 for the PS5 edition, it seems that for anyone who already owns the updated last-gen Special Edition, the new-gen upgrade will be free of charge.
There has to be a catch, right? This is Bethesda after all, right?
But, no, it seems Bethesda are finally doing their fanbase a solid. Maybe all of the Microsoft money pumped into their coffers makes milking the Skyrim cow seem redundant or unnecessary at this point. And speaking of Microsoft, it’s nice to see a PS5 edition coming out instead of locking this into the Microsoft ecosystem.
It never seems quite like the Holidays without looking forward to a new version of Skyrim, and it’s nice to know that, especially after the year that was 2020, I once again have a new version looming on the horizon. And this time, there’s fishing!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition will release later this year on November 11, to mark the ten-year anniversary of its original release. Ten years, man. Our Skyrim is all grown up.
You can check out the reveal showcase below for more juicy tidbits, and to see the game in all of it’s muddy, jagged, glory.
