Skyrim Special Edition Audio is Highly Compressed, Bethesda Working on a Fix

Skyrim Special Edition doesn’t sound as good as the vanilla version of the game. And the reason for that is that the audio is entirely compressed. It sounds fine when you listen to it without anything to compare it against, but when you hear it side-by-side with the vanilla version, the difference is very apparent.

These badly compressed audio files affect the PC and Xbox One versions of the game, and users on Reddit are complaining about it—as they have a right to. There’s evidence that the audio is indeed compressed, replete with graphs.

Bethesda is taking the issue seriously and has since posted a response within the thread to say that the studio is working on fixing the issue by releasing a new update next week.

What’s interesting is that the PS4 version of Skyrim Special Edition offers better audio than even the original version of Skyrim on the PC. The user who started the thread calls it “astronomically higher.”

Let’s hope Bethesda releases that version across the board.