Bethesda has faced plenty of criticism over the years when it comes to their treatment of the Elder Scrolls franchise over the years, but the announcement of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake is a welcome change. With how long the wait is still before the release of The Elder Scrolls 6, releasing the Oblivion Remake is an excellent way to pass the time while still offering a fresh take on a classic game. Despite the announcement being an incredibly exciting prospect, it seems more confusing why Bethesda wouldn’t have released a remaster for one of their best titles years ago.

Making Bethesda’s decision to release an Oblivion Remake so late even stranger is their rumored choice of shadow dropping the game with very little marketing. Despite the leaks and surprisingly quick announcement, the decision seemed to have worked in Bethesda’s favor, with plenty of excitement leading up to Oblivion Remake‘s reveal. Hopefully the release of the Oblivion Remake is a signal for more remakes of classic Bethesda IP’s to come, but given how long it took to release, I wouldn’t count on it anytime soon.

Oblivion Originally Released In 2006

Plenty Of Time Has Passed Since The Launch Of Skyrim’s Predecessor

Releasing all the way back in 2006, it didn’t take long for the original Oblivion to receive plenty of commercial and critical success. While it might not seem like much today with how far modern games have come, Oblivion went on to set a new standard for the sandbox RPG genre at the time. Excelling both in terms of visuals and game design for the time, many of Oblivion‘s aspects still hold up well today despite some glitches and performance issues still persisting over the years.

Originally scheduled for a 2022 release, there has been speculation that the Oblivion Remake project was partially delayed by COVID19 or other external factors, on top of Starfield‘s increased development time.

Normally, the standard release schedule for Elder Scrolls games was roughly four years in between each entry, with some variation between them. Ever since Oblivion‘s sequel to Skyrim, however, there hasn’t been a new mainline entry in the series from the MMO for over a decade. While there were plenty of rumors leading up to the reveal of the Oblivion Remaster, having it show up in some players’ libraries ahead of time didn’t help to keep the already poorly-kept secret hidden for much longer.

In An Age Of Remasters, Oblivion Should’ve Been Remade Earlier

A Strange Choice To Wait So Long Before A Well-Deserved Remake

With how long it’s been since Oblivion was released roughly 19 years ago, it feels like it would have been the first pick for a remaster given its popularity. After all the countless remasters and remakes for games with varying levels of success, revisiting a title like Oblivion would likely have been a popular choice regardless of when it was released.

Even though Bethesda seems hesitant to remaster old franchises for themselves, the studio has already published several reboots of older franchises like DOOM and Wolfenstein to massive success over the years. Given how much Bethesda material is readily awaiting a modern-day revival, it’s little surprise that fans have started taking matters into their own hands. While it would have been understandable to be discouraged, the mod creators working on remaking Oblivion in Skyrim aren’t discouraged by the news, which can still offer a unique experience to contrast the remaster rather than compete with it.

Hopefully, the Oblivion Remake is more than a simple one-off endeavor.

I’m not disappointed by the announcement of an Oblivion Remake by any means, but it’s honestly a surprise that Bethesda hasn’t offered more remasters or remakes for its games over the years. Oblivion is definitely one of the Bethesda titles most deserving of the spotlight, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other games like Fallout 3 or Morrowind that wouldn’t also significantly benefit from a high-quality remaster. Hopefully, the Oblivion Remake is more than a simple one-off endeavor, but opens the door for revising plenty of other iconic Bethesda experiences.

Skyrim Is Great, But Seems To Have Taken Up All Of Bethesda’s Time

Too Much Of A Good Thing Can Get Old Fast

Even with Oblivion‘s greatest strengths, there’s little doubt that Skyrim is one of Bethesda’s most popular game releases by far. Selling countless copies over its lifetime, it’s not too surprising that Bethesda capitalized off its success for so long, but there’s only so many times you can release the same game. This isn’t to say that Skyrim doesn’t have plenty of replayability, especially with the use of mods, but its legacy is closer to the similarly comedic number of re-releases that Grand Theft Auto V has had over the years.

While some editions of Skyrim had significant benefits, like modding or taking the iconic title onto brand-new systems, the sheer amount of attention it received compared to all of Bethesda’s other franchises was staggering to say the least. Coupled with over a decade-long wait before any news regarding The Elder Scrolls 6, Skyrim fatigue has been setting in for more than a few years now. Thankfully, the release of the Oblivon Remake is the perfect chance for the Elder Scrolls series to finally step out of Skyrim‘s shadow once more, prepping players for the sequel in more ways than one.

Oblivion Remake Is Hopefully Worth The Wait

Plenty Of Expectations For Such A Classic Title

Although the leaks didn’t show off too much of the Oblivion Remake, it alread looks like a significant upgrade from the original, with a fantastic new level of detail I can’t wait to explore for myself. Although some responses to the leaks share concern that the Oblivion Remaster is already making a mistake by not faithfully recreating its atmospheric style, it might be a necessary change to bring the game into the modern era. Hopefully Bethesda’s Oblivion Remake can balance the line between delivering a faithful yet improved reimagining of the original title, but either way, I’m excited to see what the finished product looks like.

Rather than being developed fully in-house, the Oblivion Remake seems to have been primarily developed through a partnership with Virtuous game studio. Having plenty of experience with ports and ports like Dark Souls Remastered and the upcoming Dune Awakening, it seems like the Oblivion Remaster will be in good hands, with plenty of influence from the original studio as well.

It seems like the Oblivion Remaster will be in good hands.

While there are some reasonable concerns that Oblivion Remake might have harmed the development time of The Elder Scrolls 6, I doubt it would have had much of an effect in the long run. Given how long I’ve already been waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6, I’ll gladly take more smaller projects like the Oblivion Remake to help pass the time, while hopefully still delivering a fantastic experience in its own right.