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Bethesda Gave Modder Early Access to Skyrim: Anniversary Edition to Prevent 'Modpocalypse'


Bethesda Game Studios provided a Skyrim Script Extender developer early access to Skyrim Anniversary Edition - which was launched today - in order to prevent a catastrophe the modding community was calling a "modpocalypse", according to Reddit user Extrwi.

Skyrim Anniversary Edition
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Credit: Bethesda
Skyrim Anniversary Edition

The Redditor claims that Bethesda gave early access to the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Anniversary Edition, which bundles together Skyrim Special Edition with every piece of Creation Club content released at the time of the launch of the Anniversary Edition, including additional armor, quests, and gameplay modes, to prevent "modpocalypse".

Back in October, Extrwi explained that the Skyrim Script Extender (a vital component for Skyrim mods) would likely need to be made again "from scratch", and this was due to Bethesda changing Skyrim's compiler from Visual Studio 2015 to Visual Studio 2019.

The community of mods dubbed the launch of Skyrim Anniversary Edition the "modpocalypse" due to fears that this would cause almost every mod in the RPG to break because mods rely heavily rely on the Skyrim Script Extender to function.

Thankfully, the company gave Extrwi with early access to Skyrim Anniversary Edition, which has resulted in a "preliminary" release of SKSE64 2.1.

In a Reddit post, Extrwi explained how Bethesda gave him early access to Skyrim Anniversary Edition.

“In an attempt to avert the part of the modpocalpyse that I can control, I’ve been spending all of my free time for the last week and a half or so getting this ready, and just made it about an hour before the update was pushed," Extrwi wrote. "Thanks to Bethesda for giving me early access to AE so I could get this ready.”

The developer warns that due to the huge amount of code rewriting, the "possibility for bugs is higher than usual" but says that "things seem to be working better than expected".

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“If you have an existing mod setup on pre-AE that you would like to keep working, this is not a sign that you should upgrade and start using this version of SKSE," the Redditor explains. "However, if you have already upgraded to AE and are feeling adventurous, then try this out.”

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is now available for Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows.

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