Fus Ro What? Skyrim Very Special Edition for Amazon Alexa is somehow real

Bethesda rocked up to the E3 2018 gaming expo last night and proceeded to unleash a barrage of long-awaited reveals and surprise announcements. Yet, nestled among demos of Fallout 76, our first look at a new Elder Scrolls RPG for mobile, and confirmation that Elder Scrolls 6 will exist one day, you might have missed what was by far the strangest of the bunch: Skyrim for Amazon Alexa.

Under normal circumstances, the news that Skyrim — the fifth main Elder Scrolls game first released back in 2011 — is being ported to another new platform would hardly be a surprise.

In fact, it’s been a running joke for some years now that Skyrim is the cockroach of the games industry, with Bethesda porting it to every platform it possibly can, including, most recently, a Special Edition re-release on Nintendo Switch and a version built for VR.

After poking fun at itself with a pretty funny teaser (embedded above) starring actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key by pretending that Skyrim would soon be coming to Amazon Echo smart speakers, Samsung smart fridges, and Etch A Sketch, Bethesda would later confirm that, yes, Skyrim Very Special Edition for Amazon Alexa is actually a thing that is somehow real.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the official blurb taken from the Skyrim Amazon Skill page:

Bethesda Game Studios is proud to present Skyrim… for Alexa. Yes, that’s right, the version of Skyrim you never saw coming has finally arrived on the platform you never asked for. For the very first time ever, take your rightful place as the Dragonborn of legend (again) and explore Skyrim using the power of your own voice…your Thu’um!

As I’ve firmly locked myself into the Google ecosystem with multiple Assistant-powered devices scattered around my home, I unfortunately can’t give you any first-hand impressions, but it sounds a lot like what you’d get if you crossed Skyrim with a very basic choose-your-own-adventure novel.

While playing Skyrim on any Echo or other Alexa-embedded devices you’ll get to fight dragons, shout… err… shouts, “guard your knees against arrows,” and “other epic things.” Seriously, how is this real?

You can grab Skyrim Very Special Edition for Alexa via the button below. Here’s hoping the brilliantly silly endeavor finds its way to Google Home and other devices with Assistant in the near future.

Have you given Skyrim Very Special Editon a spin? Make sure to Thu’um your thoughts in the comments below.