In the past two decades, Bethesda Game Studios has successfully established itself as one of the best video game developers in the gaming industry. Without a doubt, The Elder Scrolls series has significantly contributed to making them a well-known name around the world. While each installment is unique in its own way, the fifth installment, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, will always remain a fan favorite because of its interactive storytelling and immersive gameplay.
The game was initially released in 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and in order to keep up with the next generation of consoles, a remastered version called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition was released for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016, which included all three DLC expansions.
Around the time of its release, Skyrim‘s director Todd Howard revealed that they had no intentions of releasing the remastered version as they were working on Fallout 4 at the time. They decided to port Skyrim to Xbox One in order to understand the hardware, however it struck them that the game was still enjoyable.
Bethesda had no plans of making a Skyrim remaster as they were working on Fallout 4
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim‘s director, Todd Howard, once revealed that they got the idea to remaster the game when they ported the game to Xbox One just to understand the hardware. Howard told Time Magazine that they were working on Fallout 4 at the time and when they got their hands on the Xbox One, they played Skyrim to experiment with it,
“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 – Hard games require a lot of data, so even though 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.’ Once we were done with Fallout 4, before that we knew, ‘I think we’ll come back to it. We really enjoy it.'”
Fallout 4 was released in 2015 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and after that Bethesda went right back to Skyrim as they felt the game still had potential.
The remastered version called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition was released on October 28, 2016, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. The version was a massive jump from the last gen as it featured an upgraded game engine as well as numerous graphical enhancements that completely changed the game.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has witnessed various re-releases over the years
Over the past few years, fans have gotten so many different versions of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, to the point where it became a very popular meme on the internet. After the initial release, fans got another version in 2013 called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary Edition which bundled up the base game with three DLCs: Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn.
A virtual reality-only version, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, was released in November 2017 for PlayStation VR, and eventually for Windows-based VR headsets in April 2018. Another version called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Anniversary Edition was released for modern consoles, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, in November 2021.
One may think that Bethesda is only focusing on making different versions of Skyrim. However, the production of the next installment is in full swing as Bethesda confirmed in an X post in March that they are working hard to give the fans the next chapter.
