Undoubtedly, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Game Studios’ most popular and talked about video game. At the time of its initial release, Skyrim was cited as one of the best games of all time thanks to its stunning world design, visuals, and engaging combat. There were some technical issues but that was improved with the remastered version, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition was not on Bethesda’s to-do list but it came to fruition because Bethesda developers saw that the game had potential when they ported it into Xbox One to understand the modern hardware. The result was outstanding as Bethesda managed to give players a fresh, improved version of Skyrim, however, the game’s director, Todd Howard, once admitted that it had some flaws.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition had some flaws that aged poorly
As much as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim director, Todd Howard, loves the video game, he admits that the 2016 remastered version, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition, had some flaws as they could only put limited material into the game. Howard told Time Magazine in 2016,
“There are clearly some things that stick out that I think haven’t aged as well. Some of the character stuff doesn’t do as well as the environments. We were able to draw so much further and put so much more on the screen in terms of foliage and everything. It really looks great.”
The remastered version boasted an upgraded game engine and various graphical enhancements that significantly improved the game’s visuals. Apart from this, the remastered version came with mod support for consoles. Even today, Skyrim is Bethesda’s most popular game.
The game was released for the eighth generation of video game consoles as Bethesda was no longer limited to the resources they had while they were developing the initial game. As per Statista, Skyrim has sold over 60 million copies across virtually every gaming platform, excluding mobile, as of June 2023.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition was an experiment
When Bethesda Game Studios focused on Fallout 4, they hesitated to port it into Xbox One as the game wasn’t fully built. Instead, they decided to port Skyrim into the modern hardware to understand how it works. Howard explained that they believed Skyrim still had potential,
“We ported Skyrim to the Xbox One when we first got kits, kind of as an exercise. It’s a good way to learn hardware – We were doing Fallout 4 at the time, it wasn’t fully built, so you can’t really stress the system. We ported Skyrim over and that’s where it got in our heads, ‘This game is still really fun. Maybe we’ll come back to it.'”
Skyrim has been a fan favorite for many years now and maybe because of numerous re-releases the game has managed to stay relevant and is competing with modern video games. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the best-rated video games of all time and has been felicitated with various Game of the Year awards.
