PSA: Skyrim Anniversary Edition Is Pretty Cheap If You're A Game Pass Subscriber

Today marks the 10th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and that means the Skyrim Anniversary Edition is out. Bethesda recently outlined the price and upgrade path for the Anniversary Edition, but you may not realize that you can get it for relatively cheap if you happen to be a Game Pass subscriber.

As detailed in the price announcement, buying the Skyrim Anniversary Edition fresh will cost $50, while buying an upgrade from the Skyrim Special Edition is just $20. However, if you subscribe to Game Pass, you already have the Special Edition as part of your subscription, so you get access to the upgrade price. On top of that, as a Game Pass subscriber you get 10% off the upgrade, bringing it down to $18. That's basically enough to shave off the sales tax.

Just download the Special Edition through Game Pass, and purchase the Anniversary Edition upgrade through the Xbox store. The Anniversary download size will be very small, because it's essentially a key granting you access to the rest of the content. Starting up the Special Edition in your game collection will bring up a prompt thanking you for buying the Anniversary Edition, and then it will download the various pieces of Anniversary DLC.

Presumably the Anniversary Edition upgrade would stop working if you let your Game Pass subscription lapse, so you'd have to purchase the base game in full to restore it. But as long as you stay subscribed to Game Pass, it should continue to work.

The Anniversary Edition adds new quests, modes, armor, and a fishing system from the creation club. If you're playing on Xbox Series X, you'll get much faster load times as well.