Before playing Skyrim, equip Prima’s official guide!
It was inevitable that a handful of publishers would release Xbox 360 and PS3 games on the newest consoles. What we didn’t expect was the high level of quality across the board. Both Metro Redux and Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition outpace their predecessors, while Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5 for Xbox One and PS4 looks so incredible it demands everyone’s attention, even if they played it last year. This trend should continue into 2015, with the popular Saints Row 4: Re-Elected + Gat out of Hell slated to arrive on January 20th. Indeed, what is old is new again.
The influx of quality reboots resulted in an ongoing discussion around the office concerning The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and a potential re-release on Microsoft and Sony’s machines.
On the one hand, Skyrim is one of the best-selling games in history, with over 20 million copies sold as of 2013. Despite releasing in 2011, it is by far one of the most popular games on the Internet next to Valve’s Team Fortress 2, the Portal games and Dota 2. People still create memes, YouTube videos and PC mods for it. They even celebrate its birthday, November 11th by the way.
Bringing Skyrim to Xbox One and PS4 is a smart decision that goes beyond the potential millions of dollars it would make. PlayStation 3 users complained of game-breaking lag that was non-existent on Xbox 360, which deprived an untold number of players the chance to enjoy a mostly stress free experience.
In addition, as good-looking as Skyrim is on consoles, the PC version is far superior. Granted, there are mods that go even further than Bethesda’s technical wizardry, but it’s safe to say the best Skyrim is found on Steam. If all you know is the console Skyrim, the PC edition is quite an eye opener.
Personally, we’d love this game to receive a facelift (visuals, smoother frame rate) that puts it on par with or exceeds the base PC product. Not only that, but it would give us the chance to have the complete Skyrim on one disc, including downloadable content Dragonborn (island of Solstheim, new towns and dungeons), Hearthfire (buy land and build your own home) and Dawnguard (vampires running amok); there’s a Legendary Edition for Xbox 360 and PS3 sans graphical enhancements. Considering how easy it is to live stream on PS4, we have to imagine The Elder Scrolls 5 would instantly become one of the most watched games for the machine.
Conversely, with Skyrim in more than 20 million homes, there’s a chance Bethesda saturated the market and may take an arrow to the knee when it comes to sales. Keep in mind that a similar level of success did not dissuade Rockstar from doing GTA 5; it sold over 34 million copies of the Xbox 360 and PS3 version alone.
There’s always someone who never played a game before, regardless of popularity, so what do you think? Should Skyrim “Fus Ro Dah” its way to the more powerful systems? Let us know!