Fans of role-playing video games were elated when news of a possible The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim remaster began circulating online. And even though this is just a rumour for the time being, as Bethesda has got to confirm the matter at its E3 2016 press conference on Sunday, June 12, it is clear that the possibility of the Maryland-based company releasing a remastered edition of its classic RPG has gotten plenty of people excited.
After all, Skyrim is not only one of the best role-playing video games ever made, but also one of the most played and most loved video games of the past console generation. Released in November 2011 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, the game clearly pushed the old consoles to their limits and was one of the best-looking games of the last generation, although perhaps the game’s load times were a tad long and did get in the way of players’ enjoyment a bit though.
So given Skyrim’s popularity, it is likely that many gamers will be looking forward to playing a remastered edition of Bethesda’s game on the PS4 and Xbox One, as not only would it look prettier, but also run better, with improved frame rates and load times.
Console players will surely be looking forward to trying the myriad of mods available for Skyrim…
And although many Elder Scrolls fans would be clamouring for remastered versions of earlier games in the series like Oblivion and Morrowind (which are both over a decade old and more in need of the remaster treatment from a technical viewpoint), releasing an updated version of Skyrim makes more sense for Bethesda from a business perspective as it’s their best-known, best-selling and most popular Elder Scrolls game by far.
Another thing is that releasing a remastered edition of Skyrim will give Bethesda a chance to add support for user modifications (mods for short) like they recently did with their post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout 4. And there’s no doubt that Skyrim has an active user community on PC that has produced a ton of mods for the game, from purely cosmetic ones that make the game prettier, to mods that add new quests and characters, and ones that are actually a bit crazy. And it would certainly be a mouth-watering prospect for any console owner to be able to enjoy the wealth of mods PC users have been churning out for years on the Xbox One or PS4…
So it certainly makes sense for Bethesda to give The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a new-gen treatment, and if rumours of this remastered edition of Skyrim are confirmed then this is a game that could end up being one of the big video game releases of the year no doubt.