A new image suggests that The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim may be coming to PS5, but the leak may not be everything that it seems. It's been a big week for gaming leaks, such as a Far Cry 6 leak that prompted Ubisoft to officially tease the game, but this new leak is far more refutable.
On Twitter, gaming media veteran and podcaster NextGenPlayer shared a screenshot of what appeared to be a Skyrim listing on Amazon France. Its listing said that the game would cost 70 Euros, or $80 USD, and would be released on December 31, 2020, a date which is typically used as a placeholder for games which will be released that year but don't have a confirmed release date. The listing also featured some PS5 boxart which matched the official Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales PS5 boxart revealed yesterday.
The tweet quickly began to reverberate around the PS5 fan community, getting 2.2K retweets and 4K likes in under 24 hours. The listing seemed highly believable as Bethesda has released so many versions of Skyrim on so many platforms. It released Skyrim on the Nintendo Switch in 2017 and the game is also available on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. There are many memes about Bethesda, along with Grand Theft Auto 5 developer Rockstar Games and Minecraft developer Mojang Studios, releasing their games on every single new platform.
It's also not unheard of for video game announcements to be leaked by online retailer listings. In 2018, Walmart Canada famously leaked Gears 5, Rage 2, Borderlands 3 and many more in a series of online listings before E3. While not all of the leaked games, such as a new Splinter Cell, did end up being announced at the games industry event, it showed how game reveals can often be leaked ahead of time.
However, it wasn't long before fans noticed that something looked a little bit off with the Skyrim PS5 listing. LootPots editor Pixelpar spotted that the box art for Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales can be seen at the edges of the Skyrim boxart, suggesting that the image and the listing are fake and were created on Photoshop. New protagonist Miles Morales may have some new powers in the PS5 exclusive game, but being able to web-shoot his way to Tamriel isn't one of them.
There have been a huge number of PS5 leaks this year, from rumors that a PS5 exclusive Silent Hill reboot is in development to speculation about God of War 2. The reveal of the PS5's box art makes fake leaks much more likely and so fans should be careful not to believe everything that they see on social media.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
