Bethesda Found Another Platform to Release Skyrim On: Nintendo Switch 2 — and It’s Out Today

Bethesda has released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on pretty much every platform since it came out in 2011, but now it’s found another: the Nintendo Switch 2.

Bethesda announced and shadowdropped Skyrim Anniversary Edition today, December 9, on Switch 2 just in time for the holidays. Check out how Skyrim looks on Switch 2 in the video below.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition includes the base game and the three official Expansions: Dawnguard; Dragonborn; and Hearthfire. Players on Switch 2 get experience enhanced resolution, improved load times, performance optimisation, Joy-Con 2 mouse support, motion controls, Amiibo support, and more versus the OG Switch version, taking advantage of the more powerful hardware.

What’s more, this edition offers exclusive Nintendo content from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including the Master Sword, Hylian Shield, and Champion’s Tunic. You’ll also get hundreds of unique Creations Club items, with quests, weapons, armor, spells, dungeons, and more.

Bethesda is selling Skyrim for Switch 2 standalone for $59.99, but there’s a free upgrade for Skyrim Anniversary Edition owners on Switch. Owners of the Skyrim (base edition) on Switch can buy the Anniversary Upgrade for $19.99 to play on Switch and Switch 2.

Skyrim’s release on Switch 2 is sure to resurface all those jokes about Bethesda milking the life out of the game by releasing it on all the platforms under the sun. Skyrim has been ported and remastered so many times that it’s become one of the internet’s most enduring memes.

Bethesda is of course busy working on The Elder Scrolls 6, although development chief Todd Howard has indicated it is still some time away. In a recent interview, he teased that Bethesda could shadowdrop The Elder Scrolls 6, as it did with this year’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and now Skyrim on Switch 2.

“I like to just announce stuff and release it,” Howard told GQ. “My perfect version — and I’m not saying this is going to happen — is that it’s going to be a while and then, one day, the game will just appear.” The Oblivion Remastered shadowdrop was “a test run,” Howard teased. “It worked out well.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.