Having garnered over 200 Game of the Year awards, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a classic game, beloved by its fans. So much so, that ten years on, Bethesda has released the Skyrim: Anniversary Edition. But, like so many new releases, it does have a few annoying issues. We've put together this guide, so you know how to fix Skyrim Anniversary if you are affected by any of these problems.
Skyrim Anniversary Edition Black Screen
The most common issue we've seen being reported by players is the black screen. When players attempt to reload the game after playing and then stopping, all they get is a black screen. They can hear music, but are unable to see or do anything.
With this particular problem, the usual recommendations have limited efficacy. Bethesda has suggested a couple of potential fixes:
- Try playing the game offline
- If you are playing on PC, try blocking .exe files in your Windows Firewall
They do acknowledge these may not resolve the problem, and they are working towards fixing the black screen problem for players who don't have any Mods installed. But there is another issue with Mods, which we'll look at next.
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The Problem With Mods
Skyrim is well known for being a game that has an enormous variety of Mods from its creative community. But the Mods were created when Skyrim was using an older engine named Visual Studio 2015. Everyone is now receiving an update to Visual Studio 2019. This is whether you have the Anniversary Edition or not.
Mods may, therefore, stop working, or cause issues such as the black screen we mentioned earlier, as well as crashes and UI errors. Unfortunately, Mods that are affected by these problems need to be fixed by their creators. Disabling Mods might help. This point comes courtesy of a modder named Joseph Russell. In his Reddit post, he explains that the Anniversary Edition of the game runs faster than it used to. By adding a three-second delay to the script, he was able to avoid the black screen crash. However, most players won't be able to do this, and it's possible that the issue is being caused by any heavily scripted Mods that you're using. So try disabling Mods, and see if that makes a difference. You can see which ones you have subscribed to here.
Creations purchased from Anniversary Edition not Showing Up
In theory, creations should download automatically after you purchase them. But if, for whatever reason, that hasn't happened, there are two potential fixes:
- Try signing in, then open the Creation Club page from the Main Menu, and select "Download All".
- If they aren't showing up, and you've made the purchase form inside the game, exit the game and relaunch it, then it should appear in the Download options.
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PS4 0KB Bug
Some players on PS4 are getting an issue that says they have 0KB of storage space available. This is stopping players from loading or saving files. And the error seems to continue even if they try deleting some files. Bethesda is apparently already aware of this issue and is working towards a solution. But in the meantime, there are a couple of potential fixes:
- Start by deleting any character save files you rarely or never use. That's all saves with that particular character - manual saves, quick saves, and autosaves.
- if this doesn't work, then it's potentially worth trying to uninstall and reinstall the game. Then download only the Creation Club Mods you will actually use.
With this, as with all the other issues we've mentioned, if nothing we've suggested works, then it's time to contact Bethesda for additional support. You can reach them on Twitter @BethesdaSupport or via their support pages, where you can submit a support ticket.
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What's Included In The Skyrim Anniversary Edition?
If you weren't aware, the Skyrim Anniversary Edition is the third generation of the game. Many of the changes are what you might expect - graphical improvements and shorter loading times are immediately notable.
Additionally, there are three new DLC expansions - Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn. And finally, the Creation Club includes more than 500 pieces of content from users and fans of the game.
Hopefully, the errors that players are experiencing will be quickly resolved by Bethesda. But if you are being impacted by any of the problems we've highlighted, hopefully, our tips on how to fix Skyrim Anniversary will help while we wait for an official fix.
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