Bethesda has spoken out against accusations that it knew of game-cripplings bugs before the PlayStation 3 release of Skyrim. While the DICE summit saw Todd Howard tell reporters from Kotaku and Game Informer that Skyrim was the company's “most stable release” across the board, the developer admits his team were aware of the potential for “bad memory situations” – or, as PS3 players know them, “FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU.”

Above: At least this one isn't flying backwards

However, Bethesda says that these issues were addressed before the game was released: the team, he says, “coded solutions that they felt would work – and in their tests the solutions did work.” But with the test-base growing exponentially once the game was released to consumers, situations arose beyond those tested for – giving rise to the previously-discussed scenario.

Regrettable new results in hand, says Howard, the team “eventually had to go to the consumer and ask for their saved game files... Fortunately we were able to fix it with the latest update.” The Elder Scrolls head is the first to sympathize with frustrated players: “[Players] have every right to be pissed off.” However, he adds, “we’re really committed to fixing everything.” The game's most recent patch, released last month, contained additional long-term PS3 fixes.