Skyrim owners on the PS3 can now build houses and adopt children

Those who bought The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on the PlayStation 3 now have reason to rejoice. Bethesda has announced that its second DLC for the game – Hearthfire – is now available on the PlayStation Store. The DLC is priced at $2.50 (approximately Rs 135), which is a 50 percent discount, for the first week of its release. After the first week, the price will be $5 (approximately Rs 270).

This comes as a breath of fresh air for PS3 gamers as Bethesda had so far been unable to port its DLCs to the console. Last month was the first instance of the PS3 getting Skyrim DLC through Dragonborn, and it looks like the developers have finally figured the porting out. It won’t be long before we can see simultaneous release for the DLC on all platforms.

The Dovhakiin takes house management very seriously

Hearthfire was originally released back in October. It allows you to purchase land and build your own house from the ground up – from a simple one-room cottage to a sprawling compound complete with armoury, alchemy laboratory, stable, garden and more. The DLC introduces new tools such as a drafting table and a carpenter’s workbench to transform stone, clay and logs into structures and furnishings. The new DLC also allows you to adopt children.

The developers had earlier announced in a forum post that they were having trouble porting the first DLC, Dawnguard, to the PlayStation 3. The post reads, “We have tried a number of things, but none of them solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone. The PS3 is a powerful system, and we're working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so the issues of adding content get even more complicated. This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content”.

Dawnguard was released back in June. It revolves around an ancient prophecy. The prophecy tells of the eternal obfuscation of the sun because of a magic ritual. Players are caught in the middle of a war between a cult of vampires and the Dawnguard, who are a group of vampire hunters. The DLC was released only for the Xbox 360 due to a 30-day exclusivity contract between Microsoft and Bethesda.

Skyrim has been a massive success for Bethesda, proving that big budget games without multiplayer can be successful. The Creation Kit for the game was released earlier this year in February. Within weeks, the Creation Kit had clocked in over two million downloads. This is a testament to the dedication of PC gamers and the popularity of Skyrim, the only other game on Steam that went toe-to-toe with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 last November. Bethesda had also announced that an average PC player of Skyrim has clocked nearly 75 hours in the game.