Bethesda insists Hearthfire development has not caused Dawnguard PS3 delay

Bethesda has insisted development of the Hearthfire DLC for Skyrim has not caused the delay of the Dawnguard add-on for PlayStation 3.

Some PS3 owners were irked by yesterday's announcement of the Hearthfire DLC, due out on Xbox 360 on 4th September for 400 Microsoft Points. It's set to launch before Dawnguard, which has been available to buy for Xbox 360 for over two months, turns up on PS3.

Some gamers took to Twitter to ask questions of Bethesda marketing chief Pete Hines.

‏@ElderScrollsOTR asked: "Fans are upset at the idea of Xbox getting a 2nd DLC when PS3 hasn't had #dawnguard released yet. Any reaction?"

"We are working on multiple projects, even beyond those two things," Hines replied. "The entire team doesn't work on one thing at a time."

Then, @ShiraiRyu0043 asked: "I'm a PS3 owner an I'm a little upset at the absence of Dawnguard. Is there any reason for the delay?"

Hines replied: "Understood. We're disappointed too, but we're keeping at it."

@ShiraiRyu0043 followed up with: "But is it going to be delayed because of Hearthfire being in development?" "No, they are separate things," Hines replied.

Fans had expected Dawnguard to launch on PC and PS3 30 days after it launched on Xbox 360, as per Microsoft's exclusivity deal for the content. It did not.

"We have not announced Dawnguard for any other platform, nor given a timeline for any such news," Hines said last month. "If we have news, I promise I'd tell you."

What we do know is the Skyrim update 1.7 will, for PS3, include all the content from the 1.6 update. The 1.6 update, which added mounted combat, has been live on PC and Xbox 360 for a number of months.