Dawnguard, Hearthfire DLC for Skyrim PS3 still coming

With the announcement of Dragonborn, the latest add-on for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, which is now available on Xbox 360 (review forthcoming), being the first piece of downloadable content coming to the PlayStation 3 early next year, some questions were raised about the status of the last two add-ons, Dawnguard and Hearthfire.

Bethesda lent some clarity to the situation on the official company blog yesterday. In short, work is still underway, but put on hold temporarily while they finish Dragonborn:



“We turned our attention to Dragonborn, as we thought it was the best content to release first, and we didn’t want folks to wait longer,” the post read. “Once it’s ready to go for everyone, we’ll continue our previous work on Hearthfire and Dawnguard for PS3. Each one takes a lot of time and attention to work well in all circumstances and all combinations of DLC. Once we have a better idea of release timing and pricing, we’ll let you know.”

Bethesda’s issues with Skyrim on PS3 are well-documented. When the game first launched, players reported ghastly frame rate issues not present in the 360 or PC versions. After an indeterminate amount of play, the game’s frame rate would drop into the single-digits, prompting a litany of performance fixes for the PS3 release in the patches to follow.

The challenges with porting its add-ons to PS3 are similar, Bethesda citing performance issues once more as the original reason for Dawngaurd and Hearthfire’s absence. Sony eventually tasked a team to help with the DLC, a decision that seems to have paid off greatly.

Callum Rakestraw, NoobFeed