Why PC Players Are Getting the Skyrim Enhanced Edition For Free

I'm a fan of the Elder Scrolls: Off the Record show, and they touched on something that I realize I'd been waiting to hear about.

Some people don't understand why the PC version of the Skyrim port for modern consoles is free to existing PC owners of Skyrim + all its DLC.

A few weeks ago, at E3, Bethesda announced that a port of Skyrim was coming to the two modern consoles, with some tweaked visuals, and it will have a similar ability to Fallout 4 (on consoles) to import mods. Before that got announced, I'd heard it was coming, and I was curious about the PC version.

One of the things I kinda figured was that the PC version was going to be free to existing Skyrim owners, since there's no way a lot of us would pay for an enhanced version, when we've already been playing heavily-modded, 'enhanced' versions for years. We wouldn't pirate. We'd just ignore it.

Then, as I thought through it more, I realized there was also a pipeline issue in terms of the mods for the console port.

The port is going to have an updated engine, and my understanding is that the new client is 64-bit, whereas the old one is 32-bit. This impacts memory addressing.

The mods for the existing version of Skyrim, as I understand it, can be ported to the updated, 64-bit client, but I'd bet that they'll need to be recompiled, and tested, in the updated SDK before they can function in the updated engine.

Additionally, not all of these are going to just 'work.' At least a few are going to need some tweaks.

Thus, Bethesda is going to need a fair number of PC Skyrim players, especially the big-time Skyrim modders, to have this, so that they can have the latest engine and SDK, and make their awesome mods available to console players.

So, there ya have it.

Existing owners of PC Skyrim and all its DLC get Skyrim Remastered for free because:

1) we already have access to mods that make the game look and run better than the existing vanilla version

2) Bethesda needs us to have the latest engine and SDK so that we can push mods that are compatible with the port that's hitting PS4 and XB1

Making it free to existing PC owners is a concession that we have no incentive to buy something we already have (or an approximation thereof), and they see making it free as an investment in their console audience, who will be dependent on the PC modders, as is the case with Fallout 4 right now.

I've also heard some other questions out there that I think I can answer.

Why can't I make mods on my console?
Your console is not a PC. If you've never used an SDK before, trust me when I say that you absolutely need a mouse and keyboard to use it. Also, I question whether the modern consoles have the hardware specs to handle proper development. I would guess they don't. And storage space, too. Anyway, I understand the impulse, but trust me, even if the Creation Kit were made available on console, it would be a sub-optimal experience.

Why isn't this free for console owners that already own Skyrim and all its DLC on the previous generation?
First, there's the question of proving ownership. If you own it digitally, that's easy. For disc-based, though, no.
Second, and I'll be blunt, but console owners voted against backwards-compatibility this generation, and they voted heavily for re-buying games they already own. On console, Bethesda is following the same trend as many other publishers.
Yeah, I know Microsoft has been working to correct this, while Sony has been going the opposite direction, but the lack of backwards compatibility on consoles that, conversely, is inherent to PC is a larger issue that we're not getting into here. I wasn't thrilled to see Bethesda (Zenimax) contribute to this problem, but they, like every other publisher, are in the game to make money, so I can't fault them.

If you have any other questions about this, or wanna discuss any of this, leave a comment below! I'm always interested in having discussions, getting alternate perspectives, and talking shop!

Now, I'm gonna confess something, but don't tell anyone ...

... I've never finished Skyrim. I'm actually kinda stoked for the 'remaster,' because I plan to actually finally play through it. And probably do some modding.

Oh, yeah, in case you didn't know, the Skyrim port is hitting PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 28th this year. Between this and Dishonored 2, I'm going to have one hell of a Bethesda holiday.

Alright, enough of this. Back to gaming!

Don't forget! Comment, follow, share, whatever! I love doing this, and wanna do it more! And check out my YouTube channel!

Thanks, and enjoy the Lard's Day!

-Blaine

Fuck Off Friday 2015/7/24

My concept of time is one that is often skewed. I will eventually associate linear concepts to it, such as a date, but typically, for whatever reason, I always associate memories and events with what I was listening to at the time.

For example, the summer of '95 was a really special one for me, for a number of reasons, and all those memories are bound to Everclear - Sparkle and Fade, Neil Young - Mirror Ball, Mad Season - Above, White Zombie - Astrocreep 2000 and more. I couldn't tell you when, exactly, a lot of things happened, but I can tell you what was in my Walkman, and later, my phone, at that general time.

Which is why it was so puzzling to me, the other night, that I associate Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic with Velvet Revolver and Melissa auf der Maur. Contraband and Auf der Maur, I was certain, came out a couple years after KotOR.

And I was right. KotOR hit in 2003, but I wouldn't touch it. I also didn't have an Xbox.

Now, I'm also not someone that views nostalgia as a good thing, in fact, I tend to have a pretty low opinion of those that are hung up on nostalgia, as if all good things stopped happening after they turned 18, so I tend not to dwell on the past.

As such, I was fairly surprised and amused when I thought through the events that led me to KotOR.

There was a time, pretty much from sixth grade (when I got the first Final Fantasy the day it came out at the local Wal-Mart after going ga-ga about it from Nintendo Power previews), all the way through high school, that pretty much all I played was JRPGs and other Japanese console games. Western development and PC gaming were nowhere on my radar.

Then, the transition from Final Fantasy IX to Final Fantasy X happened. It was a really hard time. Personally, from 1996 to 2001, I had a pretty substantial 'growing up' transformation, but also, the gaming landscape changed dramatically. JRPGs hit their peak, the Final Fantasy movie happened, Sakaguchi was tossed out of Squenix, and we were handed the very bland Final Fantasy X. It's not a bad game, and actually has some very strong points, but overall, it served as a death knell for the genre and the series.

In that time, a funny thing happened. Microsoft entered the console race. I initially sneered at this, since at the time, I knew Bill Gates and Microsoft were little more than the Borg manifested in reality.

I played through Final Fantasy X, despite the story and characters and overall bland experience (though combat was pretty rad), I tried Final Fantasy XI, which I hated (I'd never played an MMO before), I actually kinda dug X-2, mainly because it had great systems and didn't feature the heavy-handed pseudo-angst of X, while slowly, western RPGs started to creep into the console world.

I remember a roommate showing me Morrowind on his PC during this time. It was ugly, different, and weird. I just flat-out ignored it.

I remember seeing KotOR get previewed in EGM, GamePro, and a few other magazines. I remember seeing it on gaming websites, which were still kind of a new thing for me then.

I remember seeing it, thinking it looked more like an action game, and since it wasn't turn-based, I wasn't even going to look at it.

I remember all this stuff, and I smirk and shake my head. Ah, youth (despite being in my 20s at the time).

I did my undergrad in Chicago. One weekend, I went back to St. Louis (where I've spent most of my life) to visit family and friends. One particular evening, a very good friend, whose tastes I've come to trust, told me about being at another buddy's house and watching him play that new 'Knights of the Old Republic' game, and it was super-awesome, because there was this part where you had to clear a room of Sith, and you could either hack a computer to blow shit up in there, or you could reprogram this droid, and there were all these choices throughout the game that got you light and dark side points, and it was so awesome.

So, I mulled it over, then went out and bought KotOR for PC. And my PC wasn't beefy enough to run it. So I went out and bought an Xbox and KotOR. This was 2004.

Bear in mind, this was my first BioWare game. I'd ignored PC gaming all through the 90s, so this kind of game was just mind-blowing.

Having a JRPG junkie, I was very much accustomed to the 'illusion of choice' that JRPGs gave, and which, years later, BioShock would point out is actually in nearly every game. While KotOR definitely had some of this illusion going, the order of magnitude was far less, in terms of how much of it was illusion. Choices actually produced multiple and seemingly profound outcomes. Companions reacted to me. Situations had multiple approach vectors. AND I HAVE A FUCKING LIGHTSABER.

I was in love, and at a very key time. Some personal things had completely fallen apart, and at a critical juncture. Long story short, I was a free agent, on all fronts, but I needed to go home (St. Louis) and take care of some things there. While St. Louis and Star Wars were all-too familiar to me, they'd also changed a lot in my absence, and I needed that combination of familiar and new.

I played the hell out of this thing, still managed to graduate that spring, and then during my move back to St. Louis, the HDD in the Xbox was damaged, and I was heart-broken.

I went to my local GameStop (one of the old FuncoLands I'd run as a managed, actually), and got a brand-new Xbox and a trial for Xbox Live. I bought the Xbox-exclusive DLC for KotOR (some station where you rescue a guy and you can buy shit), and started my game over. Replaying all the stuff I'd already done was actually more fun than I thought it would be. I actually made some different choices that time around, completed some things I hadn't before, and marveled at how some of the companions reacted a little differently.

That summer, I started to hear about KotOR 2, which was coming from a different developer, but they were friends with BioWare or something, and it was going to hit that holiday. So, I accelerated my play even more, to make sure I was ready.

Anyway, playing through KotOR was a transformative experience, and one that I am so glad happened. It really did forever alter my trajectory, not just as a gamer, but as a developer, and person. My narrow tastes were expanded greatly, and there was so much more out there for me to enjoy. I went back through BioWare's back catalog, same with Obisidian and Black Isle, and then eventually found my way to Bethesda, and on and on.

Also, JRPGs, Final Fantasy XII aside, seemed to go straight into the shitter. I guess I do like Final Fantasy XIV, as well.

Anyway, as you may know, KotOR 2 got a big update out of nowhere, which led me to finally mod up my KotOR1 install to 1920x1080, and I've been replaying it. As I said, I tend to look down on nostalgia quite a bit, and I still do, but it's been interesting to hear echoes of the past as I talk and fight my way through the underbelly of Taris. It's also interesting to compare my more recent adventures on Taris in SWTOR with what I'm seeing now.

I've also found it interesting to see, first hand, just how far BioWare has come as a developer since the release of KotOR in 2002. And not only from the obvious technology standpoint, but in terms of how they implement that technology, and how design sensibilities have evolved, both in terms of development choices, but also how those choices have shaped consumer expectations.

I have many more thoughts on this that I'll share here, but not right now. Time and trying to avoid the 'mega-post' are constraints right now.

Oh, and I don't even have time to talk about the amazing mods out there for KotOR2.

Anyway, I'll be replaying KotOR, KotOR2 (TSLRCM), and then the Jedi Knight story in SWTOR, and I plan to post some thoughts as I go. I might even stream some of it on Twitch. I'll let you know.

Do you have any particularly fun or interesting memories regarding this series? Any plans to replay any of these great games?