I have followed, with interest, the outpouring of anger against Bethesda over the Rimlag issue that has befallen the PS3 version of Skyrim. For those who may have missed it, many PS3 players suffered ballooning savefile sizes and severe slowdown of the game after around 20-30 hours of play. Eventually a series of patches were released, initially causing as many problems as they fixed, but in the end the issue appeared to have been largely resolved.
But alas, yet another problem has befallen PS3 Skyrim players with the announcement that the much anticipated DLC packs - initially Dawnguard, followed by Hearthfire with more to come - are not working sufficiently well enough on the PS3 for them to be released. Xbox and PC gamers, meanwhile, are currently enjoying both releases.
I should own up now and admit to being one of the fortunate few who didn’t really suffer much with the initial issues. I did suffer more freezes and backwards flying dragons after the first patch was installed but the subsequent patch resolved those problems and I played on with no real issues.
The glass-half-full side of me would say that, even as a launch day purchase, I don’t regret a single penny I spent on this game or any of the 150 or so hours that I’ve enjoyed exploring it’s world.
If you’re wondering why Skyrim should suffer from problems like this when other large open world console games don’t then I’d point out that no other (non Bethesda) game keeps track of as much as Skyrim attempts. Nobody could deny that GTAIV is an impressive game but it’s nowhere near as persistent a world as Skyrim. Trash 20 vehicles at a junction and by the time you drive round the block they are gone, not a trace of them. Even the weapons and ammo dropped by a fallen enemy disappear after a short time if not collected.
Of course the glass-half-empty side of me can easily see where the anger comes from. We have, essentially, been sold a defective product. The fact that the initial Rimlag issues weren’t dealt with until after release is only the start of it. Our version of Skyrim may very well turn out to be unable to run any DLC packs unlike other formats, therefore the PS3 version must be sub-standard right?
But it’s the perceived lack of interest from the developer, Bethesda, which seems to have turned an annoyance into such a bitter argument. Pete Hines, Head of PR and Marketing at Bethesda, has given very little away on his personal twitter feed (@DCDeacon). “I don't have any new info on updates or DLC. When I do, I'll let folks know. just not planning on saying that daily.” is his most recent PS3 DLC related comment from almost a week ago but some of his previous comments and the reactions are documented here .
Bethesda have commented on their blog here in a post dated 30th August 2012.
“It's been a few weeks, and we wanted to make sure everyone knows where we're at with Dawnguard. Skyrim is a massive and dynamic game that requires a lot of resources, and things get much more complex when you're talking about sizable content like Dawnguard. We have tried a number of things, but none of them solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone. The PS3 is a powerful system, and we're working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so the issues of adding content get even more complicated. This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content. We wish we had a more definitive answer right now. We understand the frustration when the same content is not available on all platforms. When we have an update, we will certainly let you know. We deeply appreciate all the time and support you have given us, and we’ll keep doing our best to return that."
Well that’s fair enough but it’s now over two months later and still we have nothing further. A couple of details have surfaced if you’re prepared to dig around for them. Frustratingly they have admitted that not everyone would be affected. On 4th October Hines tweeted “the performance really isn't good enough in all cases. for most folks, it'd be fine. For some, it wouldn't be.” On 25th October Hines tweeted “RT @Bethblog: nothing new to report today, but we're still working on Skyrim content for PC, PS3, and 360.” Well, it’s a start but what does that mean exactly? Has any progress been made or not? And it was an easy comment to miss in between all the promotion for their new games.
Details about the exact nature of the problems themselves have been harder to come by. There is much speculation and references to 'bad memory situations' have appeared. One may guess that they are a continuation of the initial lag issues but it does seem strange that they can sort out the full game but not the smaller DLC.
Unfortunately this is a situation that nobody is happy with. Bethesda should be reaping the rewards of their work but are instead finding themselves unable to sell the DLC to a large portion of their user base. Not only are they getting a bad reputation but unhappy gamers are threatening to boycott their future games including Dishonored, although Dishonored is only published through Bethesda, not developed by them, and quite how many are prepared to honour their word and deny themselves what appears to be one of the best games of the year remains to be seen.
We may not have heard much from them but you can be sure Bethesda are working hard to fix this. No doubt Sony are also desperate to get the issue resolved. The last thing they want is for the Playstation to be perceived as being unable to run games their competitors can, particularly as we approach the launch of the next generation machines.
On the one hand Bethesda have developed one of the finest games I’ve ever played but when the problems surfaced they did themselves no favours in the way they chose to handle it.
The quickest and easiest thing they could do is to open up a little. I’m afraid we need a bit more than “No info at the moment.” What exactly are the issues and are they making any progress? They may be surprised by the positive impact of small but regular updates. Of course it won’t stop everyone complaining but it’s worth remembering that people are so annoyed because they enjoy the game and want the extra DLC. Keeping silent about the issue just reinforces the appearance of aloofness, or, perhaps more damagingly, disinterest, especially as they loudly promote other new games and additional Skyrim content that others can play, but we cannot. We feel like we have been left dangling and forgotten about.
To me, it seems a strange choice to allow Pete Hines to use his personal twitter account to try to respond to a large number of annoyed customers. Even to the casual reader some responses have appeared a little short tempered and I’m surprised Bethesda are happy to let him respond in that manner to their customers. Surely it would be better to move to an official Bethesda feed and be a bit more open with the problems and the progress (if any) being made. In this day and age we really shouldn’t be waiting months for more information, be it good news or bad.
It wouldn’t be remiss for Bethesda to give a little something in the way of an apology to the beleaguered PS3 gamer to show they really are listening. Perhaps a few Playstation exclusive in game items as a free download for Skyrim owners in recognition that the PS3 version is lacking in functionality when compared to other formats.
Skyrim remains a fantastic game and one I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. Frustrations over the lack of DLC aside the game still boasts hundreds of hours of content and, even if you’ve only got a PS3 you shouldn’t miss out on the game completely just because of these problems, especially as the games been out over a year now and you should be able to pick it up for a reasonable price.
Of course, these are just the musings of an observer, a gamer of many years, and, certainly not least, a PS3 Skyrim player. So I will leave you with these words inspired by ‘The Hobbit’ text adventure from my C64 gaming days, ‘We wait. Time passes.’
Ade
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