The recent announcement of the upcoming “Dragonborn” DLC for Bethesda‘s acclaimed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was cause for celebration, so long as you own an Xbox 360. As has been the case for all of the DLC for the game so far, we heard only the December 4th date for the 360 version of the DLC. At this point, however, the lack of a PC release date is slightly confusing, as Bethesda’s exclusivity deal with Microsoft was only supposed to apply to the first two DLC packs.  The fact the release date for the PC version – as well as the possibility of the DLC hitting the PlayStation 3 anytime soon – weren’t commented on has caused ire among both communities.

However, a tweet posted by Bethesda yesterday may be cause for a celebration if you’re in the PC/PS3 camp. Details are pretty much nonexistent, as the tweet simply states:

“To update: we’re also close on new Skyrim content for PS3 and PC.”

There isn’t much room for speculation on the PC side of things, as both the previous content additions – “Dawnguard” and “Hearthfire” – have already made their way to the PC. The tweet suggests that the PC version of the “Dragonborn” DLC won’t be too far behind its Xbox counterpart in terms of release date: you’ll be waiting for the exclusivity period to end, but there won’t be any further work for the developer to do for the PC version once that clock runs out.

It’s the PS3 side of things that are really unclear. The earlier expansions never made the transition to Sony‘s console due to “performance issues.” When this problem arose with “Dawnguard,” Bethesda commented that they were working closely with Sony to find a fix, but they wouldn’t release the content until it ran as smoothly as possible. When “Hearthfire” came and went, no new details were released on the progress Bethesda was making.

This tweet suggests that Bethesda and Sony have been making progress, but that’s really all you can garner. It’s not clear whether this tweet means that PlayStation 3 owners will be getting Dragonborn, but not the earlier DLC packs, or whether all three packs will be hitting the PlayStation Store, or whether Bethesda and Sony have fixed the problem with “Hearthfire” and “Dawnguard,” but haven’t yet started on “Dragonborn.” It’s all very ambiguous.

One would assume that, if Bethesda and Sony could work out the performance issues that plagued “Dawnguard,” it would be easily applicable to any other Skyrim DLC that is released. However, given the issues with the PS3 version of the game when it first came out, it’s also difficult to be completely confident in any future DLC. This initial issue coupled with the problems with the DLC have made many PS3 players extremely skeptical of Bethesda’s promise to deliver them the content, and even the replies to this tweet sound disgruntled:

“First we want to see some results before we believe it.”

“It’s unfortunate that @BGS_Devs cares so little for PS3 owners. Little updates that provide no real information just makes things worse.”

“…after so long of getting shafted they should say something meaningful. but it is slightly better than nothing”

I think that, given this tweet, it would be safe for any PS3 owners to get tentatively hopeful about the arrival of at least some form of Skyrim DLC on their console. At the same time, though, I wouldn’t count on being able to play “Dawnguard,” “Hearthfire,” or “Dragonborn” during your winter holiday.