Surprise — Bugs plague Skyrim: Special Edition’s launch on PC

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A Bethesda game is not working for some people

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition launched today on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and some players are encountering some game-breaking problems. Reports include game crashes right on booting up and that Skyrim’s not performing well even on capable PC rigs. Others are sharing clips of their game freaking out in a number of different ways. And GamesBeat managing editor Jason Wilson has even encountered a problem where the game will load at the wrong resolution and outside the border of his desktop monitor.

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Of course, Bethesda is giving Skyrim Special Edition to PC players for free if they own the original game and all of its DLC — although it took more than 12 hours to show up for a lot of people. The new version already has more than 6,000 reviews on Steam, and it is now sitting at an overall mixed rating.

Crashing is one of the most common complaints in the more than 2,000 negative reviews. Some people can only get back to their system after this happens by restarting.

The other most common complaint is in regards to performance. A lot of people were expecting Skyrim SE to run about as well as the original, but Bethesda has made some changes to its technology that is causing even some beefy machines to struggle with features like volumetric lighting and an increased draw distance.

But then you also have the good, old-fashioned Bethesda bugs. The company’s games are notorious for reaching a level of complexity that make them difficult to test for quality assurance. And it looks like a number of weird things have already made their way into Skyrim SE — even in the first scene of the game.

Here’s someone instantly encountering a game-breaking bug:

And here’s a horse-copter:

We’ll stay on top of these bugs as well as any updates or patches from Bethesda. So stick wtih GamesBeat for more.