Skyrim PS3 DLC “Coming Soon” But Will Sony Fans Care?

Skyrim

Skyrim

PlayStation 3 Dragonborns are hearing it again: Bethesda is diligently working and making progress towards releasing Skyrim DLC for Sony’s console. Over six months have transpired since the release of the Dawnguard DLC and PS3 players are still without vampire marauders and sun-expelling arrows. It has also been three months since the Hearthfire DLC was released, depriving PS3 Dovahkiin from building humble abodes and churning butter. Yet the cause of most irritation for PS3 players may not be the delay in DLC releases but the scant, vague, and unacceptable “information” periodically released by Bethesda.

Despite swelling outcry and disapproval for Bethesda’s public relations behavior, Pete Hines, Bethesda’s lead PR man, continues to tweet encouraging, albeit ambiguous words for PS3 owners. On Nov. 27 and 28, in response to desperate pleas for solid information regarding Dawnguard, Hines tweeted that “content is coming” and asked that eager fans “hang in there.” Hines tried to reassure readers that he would “give details when [he has] them” and voiced that he understood Skyrim fans were rightfully frustrated. Bethesda and Sony have been working together to address technical difficulties–the major obstacle in releasing any DLC for PS3. While updates on the DLC progress have been less than adequate, it seems that Bethesda has ceased the “if we can fix it” talk to “soon we will have it fixed and you will be eviscerating vampires.” However, perhaps it is too late for Bethesda to redeem themselves with Sony gamers.

Initially, PS3 owners tolerated Dawnguard’s Xbox 360 30-day exclusivity. But once that time frame expired and news on Dawnguard’s release became muddled and meek, patient players began to predict the worst. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and Bethesda provided little to no information on when the DLC would be available. Fans became outraged. Tweets and forum comments expressed feelings of betrayal and anger. Talk of abandoning the franchise, refusing to purchase the DLC when (or if) it became available, and resounding disappointment poured out from the once dedicated community. PS3 Skyrim players were without ancient prophecy, custom mansions, personal bards, and hope. If these recent tweets by Pete Hines–which hint at an inevitable and upcoming DLC release–fail to come to fruition, many PS3 owners may give up on Bethesda (if they haven’t already).

Considering none of the previous add-ons for Skyrim have been available to Sony, PS3 gamers don’t expect to revel in the glory of Dragonborn, the newest DLC due Dec. 4. For any PS3 readers, what are your thoughts on the DLC debacle if it’s even a debacle at all? Are you willing to purchase the DLC despite Bethesda’s handling of information?  Should PS3 owners get any of the content at a discounted rate as a sign of goodwill?  Or will you just wait for the inevitable “Game of the Year” edition of Skyrim?

Rachel Gray

Rachel Gray

Content Specialist at Gaming Illustrated
Rachel is a game aficionada who lives with her tuxedo cat, Ernest. Some of her favorite things include bears, Chik-fil-a chick-n-minis, White Russians, and Silent Hill 2. When jogging, Rachel attaches her mp3 arm attachment to her wrist and pretends it is a Pip-Boy.
Rachel Gray

@https://twitter.com/lilspookies

TAGS: , , , , ,
  • That one guy

    HELL YES!!! skyrim is better than AC3 and Black ops 2 and Halo 4! because there is always something to do! i will totally purchase any skyrim DLC any day! but i am gonna be pissed if we still have to pay like $20 i think we should get dawngaurd like 75 or 50% off but just sayin Bethesda, you guys should do like some sorta dwemmer DLC with all these cool machines new dwemmer (not sure if i spelled “dwemmer” right) castles that aren’t abandon and new weapon type and new bad ass dwemmer armor, just a thought…

  • John

    You are mostly right, I’m a ps3 user and I am no longer bothered, my eyes as a gamer are now excited for the release of GTA V, I used to enjoy lore games just like skyrim now I don’t, they have even destroyed my interest over any lore games, I’m now only on Grand theft auto world :) unless details is given now!! And not just a release of a dlc, I want it a special release, such as dawnguard for free, heatfire discounted or might aswell free too. And future dlcs, (if there is still more coming) should be ps3 exclusive for 30 days :) Bethesda treated us like garbage, or second class my respect for them has been reduced to dust. Goodbye:( :)

  • Patrick

    i know i don’t care anymore. Rachel i must say you look ravishing and that Pip-Boy comment is great.

  • Tyler

    I guess I’ll be the first to leave a comment. As a fan of Skyrim and Sony, I have all but given up hope. I have already known Bethesda to be terrible at treating the 1/3 of their market that uses Sony products with the same respect that the other consoles’ fans get. What happened was that Bethesda released a broken version of the game on Ps3. It was a way to rake in a few extra bucks but they didn’t want to deal with the “complicated” programming for Sony. Bethesda did not learn from their mistakes when they released Fallout 3. They half-assed the game’s porting to the ps3 and couldn’t release DLC for it because it was broken. So they had to release the GOTY or Platinum edition, whatever they wanna call it for the Ps3 that actually FIXED the programming. Yet the same thing is happening with Skyrim. It’s just a bigger deal now that there’s a lot bigger of a fan-base than the Fallout series. This really bothers me. I can honestly say that if the DLC comes out, I may buy it because I love the game so much but I am completely deterred from buying another Bethesda game. Not for my console, not for the PC, not again. This has been eye opening to me. It would be one thing if they’d just admit they made a crappy game in the first place but instead, they keep quiet and expect it to blow over once they “patch” it. They’ve been letting PS3 fans down for a long time because of their d*** worship to Microsoft and I can guarantee after this, Bethesda’s gonna feel the sting when they lose a huge chunk of their profits to the PS3 users who are fed up with it.

    By the way, wanna look at a good developing company? Treacrh. No matter what happens, they are always right there to make sure that everyone is satisfied. They have a Microsoft exclusivity for Black Ops 2 on the first 2 DLC as well but Treyarch will make sure that all of their fans are treated equal. The PS3 version of BO2 had a problem with online where the game would freeze up all the time and it wouldn’t load matches, but by the 2nd day of release, they addressed it and by the 3rd day, it was fixed.
    ^^^ That’s the right way to treat your fanbase.

  • Nova

    Just like to add something that I seen somebody post on another topic but about Bethesda, I thought it was freaking hilarious. Hopefully this cheers you PS3 players up :-) The thought of it cheers me up. Anyway, some guy said that as compensation, Bethesda said that PS3 players should get a new, exclusive dragon shout that nobody else has access to. Ahhhhhhhhh lol I don’t know about you guys but I think that “feces” is waaay too funny. If I had that right now, I would climb to the highest point of the Throat of the World, strip down to my loincloth, get the biggest Warhammer in existence, and yell that “poo poo” all day lol. Everytime, anybody from Bethesda says anything online, or somebody writes a useless article on PS3, thats all everybody should write lol. Im sure that would catch a lot of attention if everybodys posting it. Cheers.

  • Alex

    Hi Rachel. As a slightly irked ps3 Skyrim owner I would not buy any of the new DLC until positive reviews came in. Remember the DLC experience from ps3 Fallout New Vegas, you know, where the whole game froze up after five minutes of play? Along with the initial three months of bugs from the release of Skyrim I’m doubtful of any ps3 DLC Bethesda generates. Think about it: there are so many problems with the ps3 platform and Skyrim that it’s taken them over five months (and counting) to come up with a solution- what sort of quality will the “working” product have? Their track record is shoddy!

    I wonder if it might be better not to release any DLC for the ps3 than to release DLC that continues a history of half-baked, barely functional content that only upsets customers more.

  • BlueEyed

    “Coming soon.” Like 2013 soon. I actually wasn’t going to buy Skyrim. I prefer shooters. :) You caught me, I’m a Uc3, CoD girl. My friend was actually the reason I got it. We spent hours on the phone playing Skyrim together. Fell in love with it, and probably one of my favorite games. I’m pretty disappointed, I was a new fan but this “No information” bs is annoying. I pretty much have no hope for them and my excitement for the DLC died out a long time ago. If it comes, great. I’ll buy it…maybe, if it has a discount. But I’m most defiantly not going to buy another game from them. My money can go into some other companys pocket. I’m an owner of both Xbox360 and Ps3. But I still wouldn’t trade my copy for a 360 one, Bethesda won’t get that satisfaction. -_- Mf2u Bethesda. You lost me as a customer and as a fan.

  • Casual Gamer

    Yeah this isn’t coming out til the game-of-the-year edition.

    *Sigh* Though I bet they’ll wait til a week before Xmas to release it or maybe even hold off on an exclusive ps3 only game of the year edition for Valentines. I can even see them not giving ps3 users a discount on account of the game of the year edition being only available for PS3.

    If this happens I’m gonna boycott and boycott hard. I sincerely hope this does not happen and if it does I hope that every PS3 user still waiting for the DLC boycotts as well. This is coming from someone who generally loves the game and even spent the $150 for the collector’s edition.

  • Weird Kid

    Screw them, they’ve had plenty of time on how to develop games for the Ps3. If they still, after what, 5-6 years cant make a good running game WITH dlc, then thats their fault. I think they need to give the dlc for Ps3 gamers, like myself, for free. For waiting so long, and for the pain they have caused the Ps3 community. If it finally does come out, don’t expect people to shell out money, cause im certainly not paying anymore money to them.

  • casper13rocks

    he says content is close were working on it. this dosent fill me with conferdance if they were close to dawnguard he’d say dawnguard but only saying content says to me ps3 are only getting a poxy weapons pack or a pooper scopp for shadowmear

  • idolatrous

    Personally, I just bought skyrim on ps3 and I’m loving it. It’ll probably be 6-8 months until I’m tired of the main game so I can be patient and wait for dlc. I definitely wouldn’t complain about discounted prices, though. :P I just hope they don’t do the same thing with fallout 4.

  • Robby

    First I want to say is, you are smoking hot and beautiful. Ok well bethesda lost me as a customer by all this fiasco. They have proven to me that they don’t care about the ps3 user fanbase; furthermore, microsoft paid them more then they would have expected from Sony consumer base. I would like that all ps3 users will simply not buy the DLC and move on with there lives without Bethesda. We should not be begging them to give us DLC’s while they treat their customers (ps3 owners) like secondary persons. Yes Skyrim is a awesome game but I seen something bad coming before dawnguard. Their track record is bad for the ps3 already starting from The Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion. Then Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas is released and then “oh goodie” ps3 users gets the slapped around with a buggy game plus delayed Dlc’s. So since they clearly don’t care about Ps3 consumers, then I won’t do future business with Bethesda and there Future Games God willing. My advice to all ps3 users, just forget about the Dlc’s it will come out soon enough. When one will see all the “Dawnguard” and “Dragonborn” advertisements for – PS3 that when Bethesda is begging for their customers to come back. That’s when one whom shares my point of view will say..”Too late Bethesda”.

  • Nacartra

    yeah I’m definitely gonna hang in there for the Dawnguard DLC and any other DLC to be honest, eventually if we hold together we’ll get it. I mean its no skin off my nose because I haven’t lost anything from it regardless of what people may think or say. if I had pre-paid for it then maybe I might think twice but I didn’t.

    I can certainly agree that Bethesda had not met the issue head on with a wealth of open information but if they did it might make them look weak to their competitors who would probably seize the opportunity to stick it where the sun don’t shine. But that’s my opinion.

    To sum it up I would like DLC to come but am not entirely bothered if it doesn’t I have faith that eventually it will find the light of day on the PS3 and I Enjoyed this Article as it has a certain finesse that others seem to miss on there forums.

  • chrisx1974

    I was tired of waiting. So I bought the PC version. Not sure if I will get the PS3 DLC…..

  • Scott

    “Over six months have transpired since the release of the Dawnguard DLC…” I guess that WILL be true, in about a month. Journalism get!

  • Slapping people

    I can understand the delay on the recent DLC (they haven’t even fixed Dawnguard) but the least they could do is make Dawnguard free.

  • Bamzach

    As a college student I cant afford the time to care to much about the lack of DLC. But I’d rather bethesda get it perfect before they release anything for ps3. Believe it or not we college kids do have a ton of spare time, and Ill continue to always switch it up on Skyrim! I just wish that Bethesda wasn’t similar to a lousy amtrak conductor that disappears when theres a a3 hour delay, and actually comes around and let us know whats up.

  • Markie Straub

    A high-end PC would solve problems for those who want more out of Skyrim since they have mods that you can download or make, which adds up to a billion hours of play. But Bethesda – did – announced before the release of Skyrim that modding tools would come to the console game systems, which did not happen. Such tools would have helped us fix some of the minor bugs and problems. As for me, I will not expend energy raging about DLCs because there are so many other things I can do. I am eternally contented from playing 150 hours on Skyrim and finished the main quest on the PS3, which made me powerfully emotional and satisfied. So I don’t need to worry about DLCs. And maybe you shouldn’t too. Be contented at where you are.

  • Floobersman

    HA so glad I made the right choice and got an Xbox 360 and not a PS3!!!

  • Mark

    Don’t give a poopie, sold it weeks ago

  • Bubba

    Need a massive discount for sure!

  • Steve

    I have a ps3 & Xbox and prefer to buy the Xbox version over the ps3 version.
    It’s been well known that the Xbox version runs better. So don’t complain if it
    Does not run well on the ps3. It sounds like u all have problems in the past but
    have not a dam thing. Tut tut.

  • Steve

    Sorry “learned” a dam thing.

  • Mark

    My brother and I already gave up on the PS3 for skyrim. I bet that they FINALLY release the DLC for the PS3 in January. Return your copies for the PS3 and go PC instead! The mods are awesome!(and you’ll probably get the DLC’s faster lol)

  • teets

    I have not been able to dive into my copy of Skyrim yet, so it will be a while before I am ready for any dlc. If I had known I’d be too busy to play, I would have waited for the “game of the year” edition. I do find it a bit pathetic that Bethesda has failed so completely with the PS3 version of the game, though. Nevertheless, I remain a devoted fan of their work.

  • MartinB105

    It’s like Unreal Tournament 3 for Linux all over again.

    They promised it would happen. No sign at release. Weeks turned to months, then into years and people just stopped caring and forgot about it.

  • Jason

    “Fans” shouldn’t care about Sony, that’s the kicker!
    It’s Sony’s own fault for releasing such a PoS machine that is almost impossible to program for because of its architecture and can’t handle large memory maps because of it.

  • Ashler

    Wouldn’t touch it if it were free. Bethesda is black listed for me, as a PS3 owner.

    P.S: I originally bought the Skyrim Collector’s edition for the PS3.

  • Greebo

    I seem to remember a game called Skyrim. It’s been a while. As I recall, the game had a lot of potential, but unbearably long load times and laggy performance on the PS3 was not so bueno. Bethesda products apparently don’t work well on a PS3, and since Microsoft can @#$*^% @#$% a @#$% #$&* with their 70% failure rate(I’ve had 2 360s RROD on me), I don’t think I’ll be buying any Bethesda makes.