Bethesda Explains Why They’re Remastering Skyrim Over Oblivion
When the announcement was made at Bethesda’s E3 press conference that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was getting the remaster treatment the crowd collectively went bananas. I know this because I was there, and I may have been one of them. After the dust had settled and the excitement had worn off many came back asking why it wasn’t The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion that received the new coat of paint. After all, Skyrim isn’t THAT old and Oblivion has legions of fans who’d love to see that project come to life. Well, when it comes down to it the answer is simply time and money.
In a recent interview with Gamespot, Pete Hines made a comment on the idea of an Oblivion remaster and noted that it would simply be way too much work and take far too much time on the studio’s behalf. Not only that, in terms of popularity Skyrim takes the win by a long shot.
“Oblivion is 10 years old, so the amount of work for that engine and that tech to bring it and remaster it and do all the things we wanted to do was significant. It’s not impossible, but it was mountainous. It was either like, go make an entire new game or do Skyrim.
It just seemed to be a much closer path. It was the most successful game that we had ever done before Fallout 4, so it already had a huge audience.”
From a business standpoint, you really can’t blame Bethesda for going where the money is. Seeing as the development team for Skyrim had already ported the game over to the Xbox One as a technical exercise the road to a full remaster was just that much closer. As much as we’d all love to see Oblivion it does make sense and if we’re being honest, we’d probably all rather see the team focusing on The Elder Scrolls VI, would we not?
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition hits retail on October 28 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Patience, Dovahkiin it’s almost here!