After many reports, leaks, and rumors, Bethesda officially unveiled The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. And the $50 remaster is launching today on Xbox Series X/S, Game Pass, PS5, and PC.
First released in 2006, the original Oblivion was a technical marvel and a massively impressive open-world RPG. It would later be overshadowed by 2011's Skyrim, but Oblivion has never been truly forgotten by the millions of people who sunk far too many hours into it on their Xbox 360 consoles. And now Oblivion is back with new visuals and other gameplay improvements.
On April 22, during a livestream dedicated to the remaster, Bethesda and developer Virtuous said they wanted to keep Oblivion’s “old charm” but wanted to evolve the RPG to bring new people into it. The original Oblivion is still “the heart and soul” of the remaster, but Unreal Engine is used for all the visuals. Faces look better. It makes use of modern real-time lighting techniques. It looks great, and much better than some of the early leaks led me to fear it might.
It’s not just visuals that have been remastered. Bethesda says the game’s UI, audio, and even how you level up your character have seen revisions. Combat animations have been improved. Enemies will react to hits in more specific and dramatic ways and sparks fly when swords clash. Oblivion now has sprint. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that the classic lockpicking and dialogue mini-games are still here.
Bethesda has also added new voices for the different races in the game, but have left in all of the weird and silly lines that people remember. Don’t worry, “Cheese for everyone!” is still in there. Bethesda also confirmed the remaster includes all DLC and expansions.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is out now on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. The game costs $50, but there is a deluxe digital edition that includes some extra cosmetics and quests and costs $60.
It’s taken a while to reach today’s big livestream reveal and for Bethesda to finally confirm the worst-kept secret in video games. In 2023, a Reddit user was the first to share details about an Oblivion remake. Later that year, the remastered RPG was leaked during the Microsoft / FTC trial. In January, Kotaku verified it was real with our own sources. In March, a report claimed the remastered Oblivion might arrive with little marketing. On April 15, screens leaked online. Then on the very next day, the Xbox support account on Twitter confirmed the game was real and coming soon. So today’s big announcement wasn’t much of a surprise. That didn’t stop thousands of people from tuning in to officially see Oblivion Remastered for the first time.
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