Anyone else purchase Skyrim Anniversary Edition then get screwed by GOG and provided the ' Special Edition ' instead?

This is referred to as bait and switch tactics.

I purchased Skyrim Anniversary Edition directly on the GOG.COM website for $24.xx. When using the GOG.COM galaxy app, I'm provided Skyrim Special Edition.

I've used their shitty chat bot and was run around in circles with no actual person to speak to.

I encourage you to purchase Skyrim Anniversary Edition yourself directly from their website as the product ' Skyrim Anniversary Edition ' is listed lower than the Galaxy app price.

I expect GOG.COM to honor my purchase and provide me the actual game I purchased.

And have you read what the difference's are between the Special Edition and the Anniversary Edition ?...

The anniversary edition content seems to be a DLC bundled with the Special edition.

Yeah, it's listed as special edition when you install it. In Galaxy, click on the button to the right of Play. Go to manage installation > configure...

Click on the DLC tab and see if the Anniversary upgrade is checked. If it is then you have the Anniversary edition.

Solved.

Jesus.

Yep, don't go by the game title in your library, as it is often different to the name you paid for. What you need to check is the titles in the content of that game on your library page. In other words, what certain files are listed as.

GOG just seem to like listing many games under the base name for the game, and there are certainly many like that in my GOG library.

What I reckon is perhaps worse, is the link to the store page for the game, as it is nearly always the link to just the base game, not the definitive version etc etc you paid for.

Click "Extras". It's between "My Progress" and "Install".

Thank you for the info, hopefully it will help the OP in the future. As for me, I don't use Galaxy which was why I have no idea on how it works (apart from poorly at times I hear! ;))

Just for those who didn't figure it out yet:
With the Offline installers it works the same way. You install the SE, then apply the Anniversary patch.

After all I know however you are better off with the SE than with the Anniversary Edition.
Apparently not all mods are compatible with the AE, which offers little more than access to some online features.

It's not a patch. It's a DLC installer.
There's only one base version and no online features.

On GOG There is no true anniversary edition. There's the Special Edition, and the Anniversary Creation Club mods. The .exe and base game files are identical.

This is neither on GOG nor Steam - this is simply Bethesda's own volition to manipulate fans into thinking it really is a whole new game/remaster to pay for something that seemingly has more value than it really has, which was only true when Second Edition (64bit) came. And of course people will buy the much more expensive edition thinking it's SO much better.

On both GOG and Steam SE == AE, that means the same version (on the same platform):

Steam SE / SE + Anniversary upgrade / AE is 1.6.640 (so far?)
GOG SE + AE DLC is 1.6.659

It's actually more correctly and logical to have those 70+ mods inside as a DLC (Anniversary Upgrade) to Second Edition rather than a whole new package.

tl;dr
I agree, it is a dirty marketing trick and should simply be the choice between SE or SE + Anniversary upgrade (or later an upgrade path if one want that instead), however, this is fully legal, so no, you can't expect them to "honour" your purchase. In reality you did get what you paid for.

GG. Legend!

Yeah this is still happening in 2025, but luckily this post exists and I could figure out what was happening.