On September 15, Bethesda launched the fourth patch for The Elder Scrolls V Anniversary Edition. This 190 MB-sized update file has just two short lines of instructions: fixed mod access for Japanese and Chinese regions and some creations showing as "Owned" but not installed.
However, this seemingly normal content update received an unprecedented 0 likes and more than 2000 angry comments from players, as this update rendered their carefully modded game unplayable again.
In fact, as an old game released in 2011, The Elder Scrolls V still has more than 10,000 daily active users on Steam, mostly because of modding communities. Nowadays, The Elder Scrolls feels more like a massive mod launcher for fan-made expansions. The Elder Scroll modding scene is so ludicrously influential that some of these expansions have even branched out and become fully-fledged commercial games in their own right.
Developers actively maintaining their game long after its launch would generally be cherished and appreciated. However, things are a bit different for The Elder Scrolls V. There are not many bugs that need to be fixed urgently; the community patches are almost perfect. On the other hand, the official updates stop the fundamental mod called SKSE from working correctly, which is a dependency for most of the mods out there. Modded games are basically unplayable until SKSE is properly updated.
"Really appreciate this update for making me download my 200GB of mods again"
The current popular version of the game, the Anniversary Edition, was a big free update that launched just a year ago, introducing new features like a survival mode and fishing quests. But it was also the time when the modding community began to feel that Bethesda really stopped caring for them.
Back in 2016, Skryim launched its Special Edition. For various reasons – mainly to preserve its modding scene, the Special Edition was a stand-alone game that can be acquired by previous Skryim owners for free. This allowed its player base to slowly migrate to the new version while keeping their old modded game intact.
The Anniversary Edition is not a stand-alone game. Despite being listed as such on Steam, it’s a direct update that completely replaces the Special Edition for players. This means that before a new version of SKSE is released, no one can play their modded games.
What’s worse is that the Anniversary Edition changed some of the fundamental logic of how in-game scripts function, destroying quite a few renowned mods in the Special Edtion such as “AddItemMenu,” which allows players to search and find in-game or newly added mod items quickly.
There are speculations that Bethesda did this to further make way for their “Creation Club” microtransaction system that basically sells community mods that were once free.
You even have to buy CC credits to purchase these officially recognized mods
After the Anniversary Edition’s release, the game kept updating on a very random schedule for a while, breaking mods every time. At this point, players are grumpy, but some still show their understanding and appreciation for the developers taking care of this now decade-old game.
In the closing months of Bethesda being acquired by Microsoft, the minor updates stopped. Before the update on September 15, players enjoyed eight months of peace without patches.
Then comes the fated, history-making update 1.6.629. The patch fixed a few bugs, mostly related to the hated “Creation Club”.
And then, the developers had to make a hotfix to the September 15 patch seven days later because, very ironically, some players experienced issues buying horse armor after the previous update.
The update announcement on September 21 also got 0 likes
Bethesda has no reason to be unaware of players' distaste for The Elder Scrolls V patches and anniversary edition updates, but they still choose to keep up with the minor updates anyway. It’s not entirely fair to blatantly call out the developers and Bethesda when they are still putting effort into maintaining the game, but when a mod that downgrades the game to Special Edition gets millions of downloads, that must be a pretty significant warning sign.
Of course, given the slow development progress of The Elder Scrolls VI and Bethesda's focus on the operation of Fallout 76 and the development of Starfield, there is still plenty of time left for this old game. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to a point where nobody even bothers to comment on these updates. That would be when this legendary game truly fades away.