To celebrate the game's 10th anniversary, Bethesda will release "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition" on November 11. This will be the fourth time Bethesda has re-released "Skyrim" since its initial release in 2011, and the game will be fully supported on eight consoles.

At this point, it is hard to imagine that anyone who wants to play "Skyrim" has not already done so. Especially since it is easily available through subscription services like "Xbox Game Pass. Nevertheless, Bethesda has stated that it will continue to re-release "Skyrim" as long as players continue to buy it.

First and foremost, if you want to learn more about the Skyrim Anniversary Edition, you can follow the current QuakeCon stream on Twitch. That's where I first learned about the latest Skyrim update, but the official PlayStation Blog also provides information in an easily digestible form.

Essentially, the Skyrim Anniversary Edition optimizes the game for the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 consoles, includes all existing DLC, and adds 500 "Creation Club" content. These are fan mods that Bethesda liked enough to include in the official version.

If you already own the Skyrim Special Edition, these upgrades will be free. If you don't have a next-gen console, the Skyrim Anniversary Edition is also available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. (No word yet on a Switch version or Alexa skills.)

It is also worth noting that Skyrim is not optimized for either PS5 or Xbox Series X/S at this time, but is fully playable on both thanks to backwards compatibility. While it may seem odd that Bethesda would spend the time and effort to re-release a game that is playable on modern consoles, the explanation is quite simple and comes directly from Bethesda's director.

In 2018, "Elder Scrolls" fans wanted to know why the company put so much effort into "Skyrim," which was already seven years old at the time, and Bethesda director Todd Howard, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, summarized it succinctly

"Millions of people play that game every month," Howard said. That's why we keep releasing it. If they want us to stop releasing it, they can stop buying it.

According to Steam statistics, Skyrim is not that popular as of 2018, but it is doing surprisingly well for a 10-year-old single-player game. two years ago, it had about 15,000 players per week, whereas today it has player count is about 10,000, and this does not count consoles that may have received a large influx of Skyrim players when they joined Xbox Game Pass.

In other words, unless Bethesda's operating policies have completely changed in the past two years, they will re-release "Skyrim" because people are still playing it. That's why they re-released "Skyrim" in 2017, why they re-released "Skyrim" in 2016, and why they have been trying to keep the game fresh with drips of content and improvements for a full decade.

You personally may or may not buy the Skyrim Anniversary Edition. But statistically speaking, many people will buy it. That's why there will continue to be small updates to Skyrim until "The Elder Scrolls 6" is released.