Earlier this week Bethesda announced that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim players will be able to download the Dragonborn DLC in early 2013, following its launch on Xbox 360 on Tuesday. PlayStation 3 owners should also anticipate the eventual release of the other Skyrim DLC, Hearthfire and Dawnguard, in the future, Bethesda says.

In a blog post on their website, Bethesda stated that their priority was to prepare Dragonborn for its PlayStation 3 release next year, “as we thought it was the best content to release first, and we didn’t want folks to wait longer.”

They also promise that their focus will switch back to ironing out the technical issues that have prevented Dawnguard and Hearthfire from reaching Sony’s console. “Once it [Dragonborn]’s ready to go for everyone, we’ll continue our previous work on Hearthfire and Dawnguard for PS3.”

The blog post continues with another plea for players’ patience: “Each one takes a lot of time and attention to work well in all circumstances and all combinations of DLC. Once we have a better idea of release timing and pricing, we’ll let you know.”

The long-running PlayStation 3 DLC saga has rumbled on since the game first released back in November 2011. As recently as September, Bethesda appeared extremely pessimistic about the whole issue, but a series of tweets last month hinted that progress was being made.

Meanwhile, Dragonborn was released on the Xbox 360 earlier this week. The new DLC takes us back to the island of Solstheim, which we first visited in an Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind expansion, Bloodmoon. Dragonborn is a sizeable chunk of DLC that allows players to have their characters ride dragons. You can view the announcement trailer for Dragonborn here.

Are you a PlayStation 3 owner and a Skyrim player? Will you be downloading the DLC when it finally releases, or have you moved onto other games?

Screenshot: Bethesda Softworks