Quickly approaching the one year mark of skyrim and sad to say the future is not looking quite so bright for skyrim (bethesda) consumers, let alone PS3 users in particular.

Yes the PS3 has had a whole host of other problems over other consoles but yet for those who know the pc unofficial patch, if not find it and gape in awe in the pc mods forum, I for one am also concerned about a major professional (in the sense they are paid) company's inability to fix so many wrongs that an unpaid community has done to such a high standard for so long (see oblivion, fo3, new vegas unofficial patches, probably before that??)

I appreciate the complexity of a game like skyrim is almost unparalleled in terms of the number of different playthroughs and styles that would never be found by all but one player. The game came out with bugs, that I can live with to an extent (remember this is not about ps3 only issues such as lag etc), however it is Bethesda's, shall I say unhelpful approach to fixing what can only be described as a horde of bugs. Yes some are incredibly minor and many I would probably never know about until I read the list in the mod.

So assume it's purely down to the company decision to focus on new content (dlc) that can be effective direct income instead of thinking about the customers who have already invested and then realised that they bought a defective game.

For many who haven't been greatly affected by these issues this is no issue but for me it's a poor show from bethesda in that income has well and truly crushed the importance of fan base and consumer loyalty, with the hope that enough will forget or be willing to give them another go next year.

As a ps3 user it's sad to think we are being further punished, with no hope of our own unofficial patch, as if the other issues weren't enough.

Can you imagine a non broken skyrim??
Quite possibly would be one of the best of all time, but yet it seems unlikely even for the most positive outlook.

Yes fix the lag etc first but surely you have had the time to at least say look we are fixing stuff and have started wading through that ever expanding list.

If anything the pc community is showing them how it should be done. One full time bug fixer since release and I can't imagine what the game would look like now, and of course proper testing before hand.

Wow that turned into a long post. May come back and organise at some point as is now quite messy but you get the main points I hope.

They are more than capable of fixing them. The way Bethesda seems to work is to fix engine issues (which we can't touch), and leave the other issues for modders to fix. It works well for the PC but obviously not for other consoles.

However, patches for the consoles are ridiculously expensive, and it could be argued that it's not worth the time or money to fix lower level issues like quest bugs.

This is a joke right?

1: Bethesda hasn't fixed any engine issues, at all. This game has the exact same engine failings as Fallout 3, they have fixed nothing.
2: Don't pretend that Bethesda is strategically leaving the small bugs for PC modders to fix while they go after the biggies, the patch record for Skyrim speaks for itself.
3: Patches for the consoles are not "ridiculously expensive" and even if they were, a patch is needed to prep for DLC so what excuse is there not to put a shedload of bug fixes in every DLC prep patch?

The game shipped in the state is was at launch because Bethesda deemed it acceptable, the reason those bugs haven't been fixed since is because Bethesda still believes Skyrim is acceptable and doesn't want to take its teams away from chargeable content to fix what is already out there.

What I don't get is how the mod community can fix things with unofficial patches using the same tools they use...and the creators of the game can not/have not...I mean can't the DEVS look at these unofficial patches and use them in official patches...

I think the fact that amateur ( meaning unpaid, not lacking in ability ) coders have had to fix their games at all, Speaks volumes..........

If any of the work I have done over the years, had to get more work done to it to bring it up to spec.. I would be holding my head in shame..

This is because "amateur" modders often HAVE the time to fix the game, this isn't just the case with Skyrim all games from Planescape Torment to Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines all include large fan made patches that fix what their developers didn't bother fixing. Developers all have a tight schedule set by their Publishers where they are made to focus on certain criteria that their publishers want them to. Bethesda's support has better than most companies, they released 8 patches so far which if I recall they have to pay several hundred thousands and go through many tedious certifications for each one, so I actually consider them generous. Of course they are also aware of the modding community on PC and what they are capable of so they let them handle the PC stuff.