Bethesda Vice President Pete Hines reveals that players of Skyrim Legendary Edition won’t be able to transfer their saves to the new Skyrim Special Edition.
The Skyrim remaster for PS4 and Xbox One is well on its way, but long-time Skyrim console fans are in for a disappointment. Unfortunately, PS4 and Xbox One players won’t be able to transfer their saves from an older console to the new Skyrim Special Edition.Bethesda Vice President Pete Hines briefly discussed the matter on Twitter, shutting down hopes that saves would be transferrable from the PS3 and Xbox 360 Skyrim Legendary Edition to the new remastered Skyrim Special Edition. According to Pete Hines, gamers can’t transfer saves from prior console generations, nor can they transfer saves from one gaming system to another. For example, transferring a save from the PC to a PlayStation 4 won’t be a possibility. Pete Hines didn’t have anything further to say about PC gamers, which may add some anxiety to the already-weak statement that PC gamers ‘should’ be able to transfer saves to Skyrim Special Edition.
This probably comes as unfortunate news to anyone who has already invested hundreds of hours into Skyrim Legendary Edition. Sadly, if a gamer wants to enjoy Skyrim Special Edition, they’ll have to start over from scratch with a new Dragonborn. In addition, since Microsoft can hope to make a profit off selling Skyrim Special Edition, the likelihood of Skyrim Legendary Edition being added to the backward compatibility list on the Xbox One is most likely non-existent.
@DCDeacon For Skyrim Special Edition, can saves be transferred from PS3 to PS4 or Xbox 360 to Xbox One?
@certifieddork they cannot
Bethesda has recently made great strides with Sony and Microsoft to try and deliver an equal play experience on consoles and the PC. Unfortunately for console players, it does seem that PC gamers will be getting the upper hand with Skyrim Special Edition. On the PC side, Bethesda has already promised that PC players who own the original Skyrim with all the DLC will be able to download the Skyrim remaster for free, and that Skyrim Special Edition will be compatible with existing Skyrim mods. Barring any unforeseen bugs or glitches, PC players will be receiving the best Skyrim Special Edition experience.
Even so, the blame can’t be placed entirely on Bethesda. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are vastly different from their predecessors, which may have made it impossible to transfer data from the old game to the new one. Most remastered games released for new console generations don’t cooperate with older consoles’ save files, so Skyrim is really no different. Considering Bethesda’s excellent track record as of late of doing everything it can to make gamers happy, this decision was probably out of their hands.
Skyrim Special Edition will release on October 28th, 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Game Title
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Platform
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Developer
Publisher Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Game Studios
Release
Nov 11, 2011