Skyblivion, the long in-development fan remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in Skyrim’s engine, is set to release sometime later this year. Following a gorgeous showcase of the mod’s opening 15 minutes, former developer Dee Keyes believes that the mod is being rushed out the door.

In a recent Twitter post, Keyes, who previously served as a level design department lead for the mod, claimed that the project has become “less a passion project and more of a crunch project” as the team aims to actually release the mod.

“Where we used to explore options and put our heart and soul into an aspect of development, we’re now being told left, right, and center that it doesn’t need to be anything special or the usual ‘no one is gonna notice this’ excuse for rushing and laziness,” the former developer told their followers. “It became harder and harder to talk to [project lead] Rebel about problems the project has or how little the developers are being told about lead decisions.”

Skyblivion originally announced its goal of a 2025 release two years ago following a lengthy development period. In the time since, Bethesda has released its own official remaster of Oblivion, but the mod has remained in development with the blessing of the series’ official studio.

In their Twitter discussion, Keyes called the release date a “massive mistake”, and explained that “in the last dew months it has been impossible for me or [other] developers to cinvince Rebelzize [the mod’s lead] that this release date is not possible”.

Keyes explained that the team “wasn’t asking for extra time to add extra features” but instead wanted more time to complete the minimum viable product that the team felt comfortable shipping.

“Instead it seemed like the MVP became more and more minimum by the day in order to make December,” the ex-developer said.

In a response on social media, other Skyblivion devs confirmed that the goal is to release sometime this year, but that doesn’t mean the project will definitely ship in 2025.

“Ultimately, Skyblivion will be released when the team is confident with it—our goal has been to have it ready for release this year,” said communications specialist Evan Flatt, explaining that there “eventually had to be a cut-off of adding cool new things”.

“Right now, we all agree Skyblivion isn’t ready (otherwise we would release it today). Our aim is that it will be by the end of the year, if we as a team decide that it isn’t we will be sure to share that,” the dev continued.

“Skyblivion isn’t ready right now, but we still hope it will be by the end of the year. If it isn’t going to be, we will let you all know. Passion projects are full of passionate people, and sometimes we don’t always agree 100% on everything. Treat each other with love and respect,” they concluded.

Skyblivion has been in development for a decade at the time of writing, and numerous dev diaries have shown massive progress over the years. It won’t be known just how finished the game will be on release until release actually happens, and there’s currently no concrete release date for the expansive Skyrim mod.