The ongoing saga over the fate of Skyrim: Dawnguard for the PS3 is back in the news. Sony announced they are dispatching a team to assist the game’s developer, Bethesda Softworks, with the troubled expansion for the hugely popular Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim game. The release of Dawnguard DLC (down-loadable content) for the PS3 has been plagued with development issues, and there were fears it might be cancelled altogether.

Dawnguard was released for the Xbox 360 over a month ago and more recently for the PC. Owners of the PlayStation 3 continue to wait impatiently for more down-loadable content, while users of the Xbox 360 celebrated last week’s release of the new Hearthfire expansion for Skyrim. Meanwhile, no date for the release of Dawnguard or Hearthfire is available for unhappy PlayStation fans.

Sony VP Adam Boyes told reporters his company would be sending some of its top PS3 support specialists to work hand in hand with the Bethesda development team. Boyes said:

“Everyone involved is trying their best to get this stuff working. We work with all of our partners to try and solve their problems. We have a big, broad dev support team that works closely with Bethesda—and with all of our partners—to work with them to solve any sort of issues they have along the way. Of course, I always want everything to work always for everyone. I can’t promise any kind of resolution or timeline but can say that everyone involved is trying their best to get this stuff working.”

No one at Bethesda or Sony is giving any hint of what may be causing the problems for the PlayStation 3. Some industry insiders speculate the same lag bug that bedeviled the initial release of Skyrim may have struck again, but the developers are not responding to questions. Bethesda will only say they are adamant that Dawnguard for the PS3 will not be released until all the performance issues have been worked out. In the interim, one can only wonder how many more PS3 owners may be thinking about an Xbox 360 for Christmas.