It’s as we suspected – Bethesda has confirmed the existence of the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Bethesda confirmed the news during their E3 press conference, as well as some welcome news for any PC gamers out there who might be questioning if this remaster is worth their time – If you already own Skyrim and all DLC on Steam, you’ll get to upgrade for free.
If you own #Skyrim and all its add-ons or own Legendary Edition on Steam, you'll get a free upgrade to Skyrim Special Edition on Oct 28 #BE3
— BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios) June 13, 2016
Skyrim Special Edition is a current gen remaster of Bethesda’s 2011 open world epic. Like Fallout 4, this upgraded version will include mod support on consoles, and will come bundled with all DLC from the original game.
As it’s a remaster, you can expect some genuinely noticeable graphical improvements. The video reveal shows off improved lighting, textures, volumetric God rays, and more stuff that I don’t really understand, but it all looks shiny and pretty so I’m okay with that.
Something that we’ve wanted to do for a very long time. Return to a world we love #Skyrim Special Edition #BE3 pic.twitter.com/76JALf1yat
— BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios) June 13, 2016
An Oblivion or Morrowind remaster would have been undeniably awesome, but Skyrim with all DLC and mod support? That’s a tempting prospect, especially for console gamers.
You can check out a little bit of footage from the remaster in the video below – it starts around the three minute mark.
No official release date for the game yet, although it should be later this year. A leaked retail listing from last week suggests it’ll be around November time though.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.