Bethesda acknowledges PS3 Skyrim frustrations, pledges a "future" fix

Still experiencing problems with Skyrim on PS3? You're not alone, and Bethesda feels your pain. Following reports that last week's patch fell short of completely fixing lag issues on the PS3 version for all players, the studio posted a direct message to Sony fans asking for their patience and promising to continue working on a solution.

“While the 1.2 update fixed the long-term play issues for most PS3 users, we are aware that is not the case for some,” wrote Bethesda in its latest blog update. “We understand how frustrating it can be when your game is having issues, and we thank all of you for your continued feedback and patience. Rest assured we take your gameplay experience seriously and will continue working on this until it’s resolved.”

Update: At least this dragon seems to be flying in the right direction

According to Bethesda, the problem is not one giant bug, but a combination of problems arising from background autosaving, SPU AI updates, and the way the game is saved in the PS3's 'dynamic system memory allocation'. Unfortunately, the incoming 1.3 update will not take these issues into account, however Bethesda did pledge to address them in “future ones”.

Last week, former Fallout New Vegas coder Joshua Sawyer perked ears on Bethesda's forum when he chimed in on the PS3 woes, pegging Skyrim's problems on console's divided memory system and its inability to properly manage the massive amounts of ever-shifting gameplay data for extended periods of time. Today, Bethesda's VP of marketing Pete Hines debunked Sawyer's analysis, tweeting, “Josh Sawyer did not work on Skyrim nor this engine and his comments don't reflect how the current tech works....he brings up issues we solved long ago.”

If it is a hardware issue, and if Bethesda truly conquered it “long ago”, Bethesda's forums wouldn't be flooded with frustrated PS3 dragonborn who still live in fear of stalling out in the middle of a mudcrab battle – or worse still – are reporting even more glitches following the latest patch. In its original update, Bethesda promised to be more careful with its updates when it begins rolling them out in earnest this January, noting, "Thanks again for your continued support and patience. We truly have the best fans in the world, and we couldn’t do it without you."

That's nice and all, but judging by the rising PS3 backlash, next time they might have to.