The most recent Skyrim rerelease, Skyrim Anniversary Edition, came out in late 2021 and revamped the game with over 500 items from Bethesda's Creation Club, but there's a chance that future mods could end up costing real money. These built-in mods ranged from new quests and locations to gameplay features such as fishing, as well as the popular Skyrim survival mode option. Although these Creations add several hours' worth of new experiences to Skyrim, some dedicated players may feel as though they've already exhausted the extent of Skyrim Anniversary Edition's unique content and may be wondering if Bethesda plans on adding more to the game any time soon. What's more, would the introduction of more Creation Club mods be a free feature, or would players be required to pay extra?
The Elder Scrolls 6, the next mainline game in the series, was announced in mid-2018. However, little progress has been made on its development, with Bethesda Director Todd Howard confirming in 2021 that Elder Scrolls 6 was in its design phase. Presumably, this is because the studio is instead focusing its efforts towards Starfield, the sci-fi RPG currently set to release in late 2022. As such, many Elder Scrolls fans have found themselves returning to Skyrim instead, especially the more recently updated versions Special Edition and Anniversary Edition. Although Special Edition was released as a free upgrade for those who already owned both Skyrim and its DLC, Anniversary Edition costs an extra fee for existing players.
Paid content isn't anything new when it comes to Skyrim or other Bethesda games, for that matter. Even before the release of more significant paid upgrades like Skyrim Special Edition and Skyrim Anniversary Edition, DLC such as the Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn expansions could be purchased separately to add new locations, mechanics, and quests to the game. Morrowind, Oblivion, and various Fallout games gradually introduced similar additions following their release. It isn't much of a surprise that even dedicated Bethesda fans are wondering if further updates to Skyrim Anniversary Edition will cost money.
Bethesda Could Charge For Future Skyrim Creation Club Mods
Frequent players of Bethesda's games, mainly Fallout 4 and Skyrim, likely noticed within recent years that the release of new Creation Club mods has slowed significantly since the platform first launched in 2017. Compared to the much more comprehensive selection available from unofficial mod creators, like those available on Nexus, Bethesda's Creation Club features under 50 downloadable Skyrim mods. All 48 of the Creation Club mods that were currently available upon the release of Skyrim Anniversary Edition were added to the game, and 26 brand-new mods were released just for the occasion. That makes it relatively unlikely that other Creations will be developed and released any time soon, especially as the release date for Starfield approaches and Bethesda begins pivoting its attention to The Elder Scrolls 6. As a result, Skyrim may lose some focus in the eyes of the studio reasonably soon.
For that reason, any future updates to Skyrim Anniversary Edition will probably be relatively major as opposed to the possibility of consistent small, free upgrades. The inclusion of new mods takes time and focus, and given the large number already included, Bethesda will likely add new mods to Skyrim's Creation Club in large groups rather than dropping them one at a time. One possibility is that the studio will eventually start releasing DLC packs for Anniversary Edition, each of which adds a handful of similarly-themed items from the Creation Club. For example, one mod pack could add new locations, while another could strictly include new companion characters. Like the rest of Skyrim's downloadable content, these would more than likely be paid additions to the game.
Equally likely, however, is the possibility that Bethesda is entirely content with Skyrim Anniversary Edition's current state, and the studio has no plans to add more Creations to it in any official capacity, instead allowing players to pick and choose individual, lore-friendly Skyrim mods to incorporate into their own game as they're released. Either way, players can at least be reassured that the most recent Skyrim rerelease contains the entire catalog of Bethesda Creation Club's current offerings.