With AAA titles like "Final Fantasy 7 Remake" (opens in new tab) and "Call of Duty" (opens in new tab) going for the grand sum of $70, the dawn of the $70 game is beginning to dawn. Producing and remaking big games is difficult and expensive, but how about porting a year-old remaster of an 11-year-old game for $70, and the Switch's "Skyrim Anniversary Edition" (opens in new tab) says, "Do it."

Skyrim Anniversary Edition (opens in new tab), not to be confused with 2013's Skyrim Legendary Edition or 2016's Skyrim Special Edition, which last November on a new generation of consoles and PC. The advantage over the 2016 Special Edition is that it includes 26 new Creation Club items, plus 48 previous Creation Club items (premium mods Bethesda has approved for sale.) On Switch, the Special Edition was never released on the Switch, so this new release will be the first use of SE's upgraded Creation Engine on a console, and the only way to get Creation Club items.

I wish I had less of a headache reading this than I do writing it, but worse awaits: the $70 price tag for the Switch's Anniversary Edition feels hollow, as the Anniversary Edition for the 2021 release was "only" $50! Not only does it make the $70 price tag of the Switch Anniversary Edition feel hollow, but it also highlights the absurdity of the base game continuing to cost $60 for the system.

For that price, you could get every Elder Scrolls game on Steam or GOG, including Skyrim, and with the inherent flexibility of the PC and the dedicated community of NexusMods, you could customize the game with things like Goku and hentai. You could do it. Now that [Oblivion Platinum Jubilee Edition] isn't available, I'll spit in God's face someday and use the Frankenstein device of a USB Blu-ray drive and a USB Type-C hub dongle to get the Oblivion Game of the Year Edition physical I intend to install a copy onto my Steam deck.

However, this is all just a perverse overture to the 2034 Starfield Anniversary Edition. To buy it, one would have to do seven centuries of hard labor in a lithium mine!