Bethesda is working on a patch for the Skyrim Anniversary Edition update

Skyrim horse armor
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Skyrim Anniversary Edition came out a week ago, and with it Skyrim Special Edition updated to version 1.6. While Bethesda worked with the Skyrim Script Extender's developers to prevent the update from being too disruptive of the RPG's more ambitious mods, the update has caused a black-screen bug on loading saves, which is even affecting players who don't use mods. (Apparently, completing the Civil War questline consistently sets it off.) 

There's also been a general increase in freezes, infinite loading screens, and PlayStation users are reporting the return of an old glitch that tells them they need to free up "0 kb on the system storage" to play. (Here's a post about it from two years ago—it's apparently caused by Creation Club content.)

On Discord, Bethesda has said, "We are aware of the 0kb error some PS4 players are experiencing as well as the 'black screen' issue. The team has been working on a fix for these (it's taking a little longer than we'd like) and hopes to have them resolved as soon as we can." A patch is in the works, and should be ready "early next week".

In the meantime, modders have come to the rescue. There's a rollback mod for reverting to version 1.5.97 and work has resumed on EngineFixesSkyrim64, with a version for the Anniversary Edition currently in beta

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

Read more
The hero battling a Xaurip - a kind of lizardman - in Avowed.
Avowed's huge 66GB update includes major improvements for the game's whole progression system, along with key bug fixes and buffs for companions
A redhaired woman holds a sword in Maelstrom, one of the best Skyrim Special Edition mods
The best Skyrim Special Edition mods
The Elder Scrolls 6 teaser trailer - the stylized logo "The Elder Scrolls VI" over a sweeping landscape of mountains and arid plains.
The Elder Scrolls 6: everything we know about the next return to Tamriel
Skyblivion evil character
With the next Elder Scrolls and Fallout games still years away, here are 6 upcoming total conversion mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4 to get excited about
Skyblivion
Skyblivion only has one region of the map left to finish: 'We are nearly ready to release an entirely remastered Elder Scrolls game'
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that wiped out Honour Mode runs at the last possible moment
Latest in RPG
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway