Bethesda reveal why Skyrim is getting remastered instead of Oblivion

Today, Bethesda revealed why Skyrim was chosen to get the ol’ remaster treatment instead of Oblivion — calling the work needed to remaster Oblivion “mountainous.”

[poison_shadow]

Gotta say, I would've preferred Oblivion for a remaster. Skyrim didn't draw me in the same way, though I did get addicted to the "build your own house" function. I see why they went with Skyrim, though.

[TylerFischer]

Oh man I lost untold hours to the house stuff in Skyrim. I too would prefer Oblivion. It's way to soon to jump back into Skyrim again -- with over 600 hours already sunk into every last inch of it, I just don't know if I can allow myself to fall back down that rabbit hole.

[Movefasta1993]

that's how i feel too,skyrim is still too fresh in my mind.My time with Oblivion feels soo long ago,and that's because it was.

[adonisisfree]

350 hrs for me... 3 different profiles, 1 very upset girlfriend. Lol

[NukaCola]

I put in 212 hours and platinumed Skyrim. I'm over it. There's no Oblivion trophies so that I would have like to dive into again

[TheSaint]

Same, played the crap out of it for literally months, will get this but when it's about half price.

[Crazywhitie]

Same here. I never got to finish Oblivion. I had to steal from the magic school an got caught. Then had to find 30 of some red flower that never spawned lol. So I gave up lmao

[bmf7364]

They said Skyrim was the easiest to do since they were testing the Skyrim Engine on 8th-gen for Fallout 4.

[TheCommentator]

Yeah, I'd heard that before from Bethesda as well as again today. It's pretty obvious that they would continue to work on a game they'd used to get their engine running on current gen hardware. It's just cheaper.

[PSN_ZeroOnyx]

Prior to FallOut 4 release they said Skyrim was ported to the X1 as the beginning template for FallOut 4. Makes since the would remaster Skyrim since it was already on X1.

[-Foxtrot]

It makes more sense for Oblivion since you know it's the 10th Anniversary 😒

[TylerFischer]

Yeah but from the sounds of it it would have pushed the next ES out even further, so it's probably not worth it.

[Bahamut]

The Skyrim remake makes sense, and I very much welcome it, but 60 bucks? God damn.

[attilayavuzer]

Cause it was way easier, required way less money and they knew people would still pay full price for it.

[TylerFischer]

Yeah I think they wanted to do Oblivion though -- just wasn't worth the time and money. I rather them just do a quick job on Skyrim -- sell it to all who want it -- and get started on the next ES.

[_-EDMIX-_]

The people that are making this remaster are likely not even the team that's working on the next Elder Scrolls.

porting and creating games is actually not the same process...

[TylerFischer]

Yeah I mean I'm sure it's only a slice of the team -- and not the key people to the development team -- but still slows down the process of the next ES.

[freshslicepizza]

agreed, the answer from them reeks of laziness.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Before the release of Fallout 4, Skyrim was actually ported to the XB1. Fallout 4 was built off of the Skyrim port. It is pretty obvious the Remasterd Skyrim would take less work than Oblivion and likely sell better, since the previously mentioned game was more popular.

[TylerFischer]

Yeah though the port still had to be fluffed up. But yeah still..Morrowind sounds so juicy on the PS4.

[The7Reaper]

I still remember cheating and getting the Chillrend sword super early like it was yesterday.. ahhh memories.

[TheColbertinator]

Chillrend is such a game breaker. Got it early in Oblivion too after wiping out some goblins.

After having Chillrend,the first four guilds all fell to me.

[KillZallthebeast]

lol is it because they would actually have to do more than just simply half ass it and up the res?

[akurtz]

theyre not simply half assing it. theres more to it that you cant comprehend

[KillZallthebeast]

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better

[akurtz]

i dont plan on purchasing this game either, but that doesnt mean im going to disrespect the labor going into these projects

[KillZallthebeast]

I get where you are coming from no disrespect, but they aren't really doing anything of note that mods haven't done already. Being free on pc is fine and actually a nice gesture, but to charge full price to console gamers who either have no other option or don't know better it is a bit slimy. Sure bringing the res up takes effort, but by no means does it mean they should charge full price. Most of the improvements for ps4/X1 are already in existence, and easily carried over from PC.

IF and thats a moronically large if, they added more content I wouldn't say a word but as it stands this is just a cash grab at console gamers who are ignorant. Something Bethesda has been leaning towards ever since fallout 4

[xPhearR3dx]

Except PS4 and Xbone couldn't handle the graphics mods that are on PC. So by them upping the res, adding all new lighting, textures, meshes, and most likely gameplay improvements as well as optimization, and the biggest selling point, mods. If you're an Xbone player with Fallout 4, you've got a tiny taste of what mods can really do for the game. Fallout 4 doesn't have any huge mods yet since the CK has only been out a short time. Skyrim on the other hand has an insane amount of mods made over the last 5 years. You're getting all of that content (at least the ones up choose to upload to Bnet) for free.

If buying remastered games bothers you so much, go build a PC and you won't have the problem. As a PC gamer myself, I planned on dropping 60 bucks to play through the game again with all my favorite mods using the updated engine seen in Fallout 4.

[KillZallthebeast]

sigh...they essentially are porting a 5 year old game to low end PCs. it's a miracle anything worked on ps3 with its half a gig of ram(in a scale that bethesda enjoys). Both have 8 gigs with deferring speed, and also mimic PC architecture. as far as handling the mods they almost certainly could.
There is a simple reason I try not to talk to PC gamers. They seem to be lost in their own world and assume anyone attacking ports must be a filthy console peasant.

[KillZallthebeast]

I've disgusted myself with all this communication feel free to take this as a win if you want.

[xPhearR3dx]

Funny considering there's quite a few graphics mods for Fallout 4 that aren't on consoles, simply because they can't handle them. And this also isn't a port, it's a remaster. So your lack of correct terminology along with no being a PC gamer yourself, doesn't really help make your case.

The problem I have with console only gamers (As I own a PC, Wii U, and PS4) is the sense of entitlement. You guys feel like you deserve everything for nothing because you bought a precious console. That's not how business works my friend.

[KillZallthebeast]

A game made a year ago as opposed to one made 5 years ago. You're either a troll or too dense to know how these two games differ

[cyber_daemonx]

Would've bought Oblivion remaster. Preferred it over Skyrim.

[ChrisW]

"It was either like, go make an entire new game or do Skyrim."

Wow... Uh... DuuUuuh! Go make an entire new game!!!

[TylerFischer]

Yeah, man I hope the next game is a new location.

[Grap]

in other form, we are lazy and we want you to pay for half ass remaster.

[Mr-Dude]

But still to pricey Bethesda...

[Horseygamer]

with skyoblivion and skywind mods on the way Berthesda don't need to revamp them, especially as the have now supported modding on PS4 Skyrim!!!

[TylerFischer]

Well we see about that, we still don't have mods on Fallout 4 haha :)

[BlaqMagiq1]

And the mod limit is 900MB on PS4. Don't get too excited. Especially if some of the most wanted mods go way beyond that limit.

[letsgopal]

Dude...

1. The mod limit is 900MB, skyoblivion/skywind would take much more space
2. Bethesda would never allow such mod on bethesda.net, as it shares assets with previous game which is forbidden in their EULA.

[The_Kills]

Please refrain from speaking about things which you have no idea about.

1) They include mod support but only half way with that arbitrary 900MB limit to artificially stop things like those two projects because they can't stop them legally.

2) No one cares anymore what Bethesda will host on thier ridiculous site. Anyone into mods is in PC, and anyone that creates mods worth thier weight, could care less whether Bethesda wants to host it or not. Also, the reason I said they legally can't do anything to the Skywind project is because they aren't using ANY assests from the previous games, and they aren't charging anything for the mod when it' hits. Everything is being done from the ground up (all custom assets) precisely because we have publishers like Bethesda who refuse to give us what we ask of them. This is taking the highest road possible, and there are no legal ramifications Besthesda can apply.

The people working on it can't be bought out because they are not a real group, more like collaborators on GitHub, there is nothing to buy, it's futile, and the project is far too along its path now to be stopped. So please don't spread false information without knowing the story.

[-Foxtrot]

Couldn't they just buy them and finish them off while adding to it

Credit the mods and expand on it

Half the work is done

[Der_Kommandant]

They need to remaster Morrowind

[The_Kills]

Too late, Google Skywind to find out why.

[Tobsesan]

"because we would have to work on it and not just slap remastered on it and release it with some mods"

[Tobsesan]

Skyrim was the worst elder scrolls I played. Morrowind and Oblivion are way better in my opinion. Some ppl may disagree because its theire first elder scrolls over. But you should go back and see how got those games were.

[TylerFischer]

Morrowind remains my favorite but I enjoyed Skyrim more than Oblivion. All great games. Way better series than fallout IMO.

[NohansenBoy]

Cuz it's easier and they don't wanna put effort into extorting money out of console players.

[Mr Marvel]

Oblivion was average imo, while Skyrim
was amazing!

To me remaking Skyrim for PS4 was a no-brainer.

[TylerFischer]

Skyrim sure was the commercial breakout for the series -- it was always a relatively popular series, but Skyrim pushed it to that 20 million plus territory.

[jznrpg]

We Want Morrowind Remaster !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But Oblivion would have been better than Skyrim. And next Elder Scrolls bring back athletics and acrobatics please....

[Cherchez La Ghost]

Took me over a year to complete the main story line and DLC. Do I really want to invest that time again I'm asking myself.

[TechTronicJunkie]

I'm hesitant to say, but with the fallout franchise doing so well along with TES series, I wouldn't mind seeing some sort of remaster of Morrowind. Just leave those damn Stilt Striders out of it or fix the spawn rate lol. So we as consumers don't have to do it with a mod. As for Oblivion,Hell Yeah! Games that tend to be monotonous to remake seem to do better with sales and sit well in the consumers eyes.

[AccountAttemptNr5]

Ahh Skyrim. At first, hours passed by, then days, weeks, months.. My girlfriend stopped passing by though

[Majister-Ludi]

This gen is remaster central station. It really is awful. It's games like deus ex and system shock that need remasters not games released in the past few years. I want morrowind remastered or daggerfall.

[Vanfernal]

It's less work lol. Just add a couple better textures and you got yourself Skyrim Remastered. Oblivion would need to be remastered from the ground up.

[Saxism]

Should've redone Morrowind and Oblivion. But those are both FAR more work for Bethesda to completely remaster than Skyrim.

[rataranian]

Because money. Next topic.

[war boy]

How about revealing what day ps4 gets mods.

[Sidewinder-]

It would've actually been worth the Remaster Title.

[Yukonsbud]

I hope Skyrim remastered has a better framerate on xbox1 than FO4 cuz FO4 is like a slide show with random pause thrown in... Quite bs imo!

[zodiac909]

Something about Oblivion and how the music and world clashed so perfectly, still lingers with me these days. It had its technical issues at times, but still a masterpiece.

[SSjDomon]

Skyrim is better anyway.

[Exvalos]

I would of taken a morrow remake I never beat that 1 in the day

[neutralgamer1992]

for me skyrim was the right choice since the ps3 version was really buggy so this will be my first chances to play skyrim

hopefully it won't have any major bugs and run smooth

[PSN_ZeroOnyx]

I have it on PS3 and it ran fine. Well you know, fine for a Bethesda game. I still love Bethesda games, FO a bit more than ES.

[Dan_scruggs]

Because money. There I saved you having to read the article.

[mkis007]

Technically this is one situation where people can scream lazy devs