The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Starts Strong

It was supposed to be a shadow drop, but then it got leaked. But that probably made people even more interested in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Anyway, the launch was strong.

A shadow drop that wasn't. Last evening, Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. The remaster, which is more of a remake of the March 2006 RPG, was released at 17:00 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, as well as on Xbox Game Pass. The release coincided with a showcase event that officially announced the game for the first time, although the remaster had already leaked a few days before the release, when assets were released early on the Virtuos website. Since then, quite a bit of hype has built up.

The reveal on YouTube had almost 2.6 million views in less than a day. The game is currently at the top of the PlayStation charts. The same goes for Steam, where the game has racked up 182,298 CCU. This is the fourth-highest total for a Bethesda game, behind Fallout 4 (472,962), Starfield (330,723) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (287,411). Only Monster Hunter Wilds (1,384,608), Schedule I (459,075), R.E.P.O. (271,571), Split Fiction (259,003), Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (256,206) and Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced (187,059) had more CCUs this year. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is also available as part of Xbox Game Pass, which of course had an impact on the sales figures.

The remaster is being developed by Bethesda Game Studios in collaboration with the team at Virtuos, starting in 2021. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered includes the main game and the expansions The Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. The remaster is powered by Unreal Engine 5 (for up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second). "Oblivion is the heart and soul of the Remaster," says Virtuos Executive Producer Alex Murphy. "It's running underneath everything you see, powering all the gameplay and world logic. But to bring the Oblivion experience into 2025, it needed some modernizing, and that came in a few key places."

According to the developers, all visual assets and animations have been recreated, and the combat system is said to be more engaging with new hit reactions. There are also numerous quality of life improvements. The leveling system has been redesigned, the UI and UX have been overhauled, the third-person perspective has been improved, each race in the game sounds unique, and new dialogue has been recorded for this remaster. However, only English voice-overs are available.

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