Yesterday it was announced that fans who purchase Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would be able to pre-load the game in anticipation of it's launch on November 11, thought the start date is still uncertain.
That's not the only thing uncertain though. There seems to be some confusion as to when the actual Skyrim game will be unlocked on Steam. In various countries, Steam is giving different unlock times for when players can actually start playing the game, contradicting Pete Hines earlier statements that Skyrim will release at 12:01 am local time. Of course, this is causing mass confusion amongst gamers in different countries.
Today, Pete Hines, VP of PR and Marketing at Bethesda, has attempted to squash rumors and end speculation/confusion by publicly announcing "All of the steam countdown clocks are currently wrong." So nobody really knows what times. Hines explained that the Steam release "will be local time" meaning EVERY time zone gets it's individual 12:01 am release.
Ok perfect. So it will release hour by hour across the world. Not so fast, Hines latest Tweet seems to have caused even more confusion. "Steam is going to unlock every hour on the hour for all the various time zones? Ever steam game I've gotten is usually 12 am PST," explained a Twitter follower.
Hines promptly responded, "one for oz, one for UK/Europe, one for US (EST is planned), etc." Wait…WHAT!? That would mean if Skyrim releases at 12:01 am EST, folks on the west coast would have access to the game at 9pm PST on November 10th! I wasn't the only one shocked by this. When asked by a fan "Holy sh*t did you just announce 9pm PST on 11/10?" Hines immediately responded, "that's what we are working on."
Now, here's the question…what exactly are they working on? Making it so each time zone will release at 12:01 am? Or making it so the US will have one time zone release?
One thing is for certain, the Skyrim countdown clocks are wrong, and no one really has any idea at this point.