A former lead dev on Skyblivion, the ambitious reimagining of Bethesda’s beloved game, has recalled their ‘huge relief’ after Bethesda’s official The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered ended up being a ‘faithful remaster’.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Dee Keys, the project’s former world designer, revealed that the team was initially ‘concerned’ as it was unclear what direction Bethesda’s remaster would take. “It was not set in stone whether it was a ‘remake’ or ‘remaster’, so we were concerned,” they recalled.
Once the game was released, however, there was a huge ‘relief’ the team had opted for something closer to a faithful recreation of 2006’s classic than a reimagining, as the Skyblivion team spent years adding cut content and new quests to the RPG.
“It was a huge relief because we realized ‘oh, they’re doing something completely different’. They’re doing a faithful remaster and we were going for something more remade from the ground up.’”
Skyblivion, which has been in development for the last 10 years, is finally set for release this year. However, Keys previously expressed concerns earlier this year that the release date may not be achievable.
Speaking about the project on X, formerly known as Twitter, Keys claimed it risked being rushed out the door”, and a release date this year is “pointless and unachievable”. Despite this, the team posted an Update in August, stating that they are closing in on the ‘final stretch’ towards release. However, in the same post, they reached out to their following saying that they needed extra help. “Despite our progress, we can’t do this alone; we hope that with your support, we can complete the final steps in finishing Skyblivion’, they wrote in a developer diary blog post.
While still unreleased at the time of writing, the ambitious mod project does look very well made, especially for a community project. Similar to Fallout London, the new project does seem as close to an official release as possible.
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Earlier this year, the team showed off the introduction of the game which shows numerous changes from the original 2006 game’s release. Additionally, the game is reviving multiple cut elements from the original including the cutdown Goblin Tribes and Goblin Wars features and missing locations.
At the time of writing, there is still no concrete release date for the Skyblivion mod, but the team is still aiming for a 2025 launch.
