Skip to main content

Bethesda turns Skyrim into a mod platform with new Creations feature

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is over 12 years old at this point, but a hefty Bethesda Game Studios update that dropped today is meant to revitalize its modding community. It turns the game into an easily accessible platform with user-made mode content, even on console.

The logo for Bethesda Game Studios creations.
Bethesda Game Studios

Building on what was once the Bethesda Creation Club, this new feature is called Bethesda Game Studios Creations. Its first implementation is in Skyrim Special Edition and Skyrim Anniversary Edition across PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PS5. Bethesda created a Creations storefront where players can buy and download mods that add anything from items to new characters and questlines. It’s also letting Skyrim mod creators join its Verified Creator program so they can set prices for their mods and earn royalties from the sales.

Recommended Videos

I checked out Skyrim Special Edition on Xbox Game Pass to see how this system impacts players. A “Creations” tab is present on the main menu, and picking that option will bring you to an in-game storefront with a variety of potential modes to purchase. There, players can purchase credits, pursue mods they want to buy, and then spend those credits on the mods. After doing this, they can show up in-game. This setup should seem familiar if you’ve pursued user-generated content in games like Fortnite or Roblox, but can also be ignored if you aren’t interested. On PC, you can also just mod the game on your own.

Aldmeri Anti-Mage is one of the mods available through Bethesda Game Studios Creations in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Aldmeri Anti-Mage is one of the mods available through Bethesda Game Studios Creations in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Niero / Bethesda Game Studios

This feature works in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and Anniversary Edition across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game is also available for Nintendo Switch.

Tomas Franzese
A former Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese now reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Bethesda is responding to negative Starfield reviews. And that’s a good thing
An astronaut explores a planet's surface in Starfield.

Imagine leaving a bad review on Steam only to log on one day and find that the creators of that game had responded. That’s exactly what’s been happening to Starfield players as of late. Currently saddled with a Mixed status derived from over 80,000 user reviews, Bethesda has gone into damage control mode to respond to its harshest critics. Reviews that call the game boring have been met with direct responses as the publisher explains that perhaps that’s the point.

“Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design -- but that’s not boring,” one especially bold reply from Bethesda reads.

Read more
The best Bethesda games of all time
Soldiers about to fight with a giant in the background.

Bethesda is one of the rare cases of a game developer finding so much success that it branched out to become one of the biggest publishers in the Western gaming market. While not quite as gigantic as the likes of Activision or EA, Bethesda has a great stable of developers, itself included, that have made some of the most ambitious games on the market. Whether it's the cutting-edge technology coming out of ID Software, the high-octane FPS action of Machine Games, or even the more experimental titles from Arkane, Bethesda's name is attached to far more than just its high-profile RPG series.

Since it was acquired by Microsoft, all of Bethesda's games, including the games made by the studios under it, will be console-exclusive to the X-box platform moving forward. However, there is a long history of games already released for multiple platforms, and between all the studios Bethesda is in charge of, there are games of all types to check out. You will obviously know the major players here, such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but there are way more Bethesda games that are just as good. That's why we've rounded up this list of the best Bethesda games of all time.

Read more
The best Starfield mods
Promotional art for Bethesda's Starfield.

Bethesda games have always been a modder's paradise. Part of the reason people have played their older games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 for years after release is the amazing mod support that continues to breathe life into these already massive RPGs. Starfield is the studio's largest and most ambitious game yet, and even before launched was touted as being built with modders in mind. New and creative mods are being made all the time, so keeping up with the rapidly evolving mods is a challenge. We've gone through the top mods currently available to give you a great place to start.

As more mods are created, we will update this list with the most exciting and useful ones available.
Starfield Upscaler

Read more