To the surprise of many Elder Scrolls fans, Bethesda announced that The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Anniversary Edition, releasing to coincide with the game's 10th anniversary. A re-release of Skyrim is nothing new, but it is surprising that the game is more than just a port of Skyrim to next-gen consoles. Anniversary Edition includes a ton of Creation Club content, some of which was unreleased, as well as potential engine updates for the next generation of consoles.
There was some confusion surrounding Anniversary Edition, mainly surrounding who exactly gets the game for free. While PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players will have to buy Anniversary Edition, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S users who already own The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition will be able to upgrade for free, with PC users able to upgrade for a price. There's no word on a Nintendo Switch version. Given that Anniversary Edition will be the third re-release of Skyrim since its release, fans are understandably skeptical about whether picking up this new version is worthwhile.
The retail price for Anniversary Edition and the price of the PC upgrade are currently unknown, though it wouldn't be surprising to find the price floating around $60.00. For those looking to get some of the amazing community-created mods available on the Creation Club, Anniversary Edition ends up being a pretty nice deal. That being said, Special Edition currently goes for about $40.00 on Steam, making it a far better purchase for those who don't really care for the Creation Club content.
There is some free content coming to all versions of Special Edition that will release on the same day as Anniversary Edition, including a new fishing mini-game and mods from Creation Club like survival mode and the Saints and Seducers quest pack. If fishing or survival mode was a major draw for some players towards Anniversary Edition, they shouldn't worry about buying that content. However, the rest of the Creation Club's offerings will only be included in Anniversary Edition or the paid upgrade available to PC users.
In short, Anniversary Edition appears to be the new "definitive" next-gen version of Skyrim aimed at the few who haven't already picked up a copy. Those who already own Special Edition on PC will only be getting Creation Club content by upgrading based on what's known right now. Next-gen console users will get Anniversary Edition for free, meaning they don't need to worry about whether or not they should purchase it.
It really comes down to the price of the upgrade for Special Edition PC users, which is currently unknown. A lot of the content on the Creation Club is covered by the massive modding community for Skyrim, though there are some pretty interesting things on the Creation Club that help it stand out. There's no doubt that upgrading to the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim will be cheaper than just buying everything off the Creation Club, yet there's something to be said about picking and choosing.
There's also whether or not the Anniversary Edition will include any upgrades to the PC version of the game. While it's certainly going to be optimized for next-gen consoles, there hasn't been any word on if PC users can expect better performance. If so, that may make the Anniversary Edition worth the upgrade. More information will likely be released as it gets closer to November, making the decision on whether or not Anniversary Edition is a good purchase easier to make.