Skyrim has remained a critical and commercial success since its original release on the PS3 and the Xbox 360 back in 2011. Due to its success, Bethesda practically had to port it over to the PS4 and the Xbox One under the name The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition. The massively successful ports led to Bethesda porting the game over to the Nintendo Switch as well, a full 6 years after the original release. This sparked a funny yet accurate meme that the company would port this game over to as many platforms as it possibly could to push sales.
The Elder Scrolls Online recently received a patch for the Xbox Series X and PS5 that upgraded the resolution up to 4K along with other graphical enhancements. This has left fans clamoring for yet another upgrade for Skyrim, and there are a plethora of reasons as to why this is just a matter of when, rather than if.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Is Quite Far Off
It's surprising to think that the latest entry in the series will be turning 10 years old this year, and fans don't have any substantial information regarding the release date for the next game. The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced back at E3 2018 with a short snippet of the game world along with the official title. Since then, Bethesda hasn't revealed any new piece of information, leaving many fans simply guessing at possible hints and teasings for The Elder Scrolls 6's setting and the like.
Most of the reasoning regarding the silence on the matter can mostly be attributed to the reason that The Elder Scrolls 6 is still in the early stages of development. This alone makes a strong case for upgrading Skyrim for PS5 and Xbox Series X, as otherwise, there's really no Elder Scrolls for the foreseeable future.
The Existing Ports Can Exhibit Minor Problems
The existence of a Special Edition would lead many to believe that this is the best version of Skyrim, which is true to a large extent. PlayStation 5 and the new Xbox Series consoles can run the last-gen games directly without any patching or updates required, however, which could have been the easiest and possibly the best way of playing the game. Fans in the Xbox ecosystem with access to their Game Pass subscription already have access to the game, as it was recently added to its already massive catalog.
Ultimately, what this means is that after years of improving the game, the PS5 and Xbox Series X would become the best place to play the game. It already does quite well, but with an upgrading targeting PS5 and Xbox Series X enhancements, it seems like a safe enough bet that Skyrim could still be made even better.
The Next-Gen Consoles Already Look Promising
The next generation of consoles are significantly more powerful than their predecessors, and it already shows. Reddit user 'annathetravelerbanana' has posted an elaborate guide on using a mod called Uncap FPS which lets players unlock the framerate limit in Skyrim on the Xbox Series X. This obviously enough, requires players to install the Xbox One version of the game on their Xbox Series X to see the boost, which is just astonishing.
Where the Xbox One X could exhibit slowdowns at a 30 fps cap, the Xbox Series X maintains a steady 60fps without breaking a sweat. The Series S should also see some improvements, but there is no firm evidence as of now. This does come with a caveat, though. Enabling this mod can disable achievements on the console and players will have to jump through some hoops to get it all to work. PlayStation users can also use a similar mod by the name of Skyrim@60fps, both on the PS4 and the PS5 to see a noticeable improvement.
Bethesda, however, shouldn't replicate this mod in the form of a patch and ship it over to the newer consoles. The game's visuals look the best they can on the upgraded machines, but there are inherent possibilities of even more. In order to lure a bunch of newer players, it's best that the developers put in a little more effort and widen the scope of the upgrade to aspects other than visuals. Clever use of the new consoles' features such as the haptic feedback of the new DualSense on the PS5 or even a 120 fps mode should be the best place to start. Features such as this should convince first-time players as well as experienced veterans to replay this classic and possibly get on the hype train for the next entry in the franchise.
Skyrim is available on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.