Why doesn't Bethesda do a Skyrim remake with unreal engine 5?

[a sentient mcnugget]

I'd pay full price.

[LostME]

Because people eat Starfield from the shovel. Why waste resources transferring old spaghetti code to another engine?

[SpeedFreak1972]

Well I think you're a minority in that and there lies the problem also say goodbye to modding for a long time ...

[Valden21]

Using Unreal Engine means they have to get permission from Epic, and that requires money. In some cases, it might also require that Bethesda adopt the EOS. As Bethesda has their own game engine, and considering the reputation that Epic and the EOS has among PC gamers, it makes no sense for Bethesda to use any version of the Unreal Engine.

[Zero McDol]

Skyrim is already next gen enough for me, thanks to mods. I'd have no reason to buy it on a new engine, let alone lose all of the mods that have really helped this game grow and evolve.

To each their own of course OP, but I wouldn't be buying it.

[Half Phased]

Because it would require retraining their entire team to use the unreal engine, remaking every art asset in Skyrim (you could try and create a tool to port over every asset to work in the unreal engine, but let’s be real, you’re doing this for the visual upgrade, so for this to actually make sense, you’d need to remake every asset for the visual upgrade), remake the entire game world (again, could make a tool… but you’d probably have to spend so much time checking that everything was converted correctly) and finally, recode every quest.

Basically, just as, if not more work than making elder scrolls 6 in the creation engine.

[Valden21]

In short, it's cheaper, takes less time, and takes less effort for Bethesda to use their own in-house engine rather than some other company's engine.

[Liquid Inc]

And that's before you consider how much easier the Creation Engine is to add mods to... Bethesda (and Microsoft) know it's mods that make Bethesda games, Bethesda games. Their base games have always been average to good, Starfield being no exception to that rule, but they're made, and remembered by the mods.
Skyrim wouldn't be played anywhere near as much as it is, without mods. Neither would any of their other games, including New Vegas.

Bethesda make them, Mods make them remembered.

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by Liquid Inc:

And that's before you consider how much easier the Creation Engine is to add mods to... Bethesda (and Microsoft) know it's mods that make Bethesda games, Bethesda games. Their base games have always been average to good, Starfield being no exception to that rule, but they're made, and remembered by the mods.
Skyrim wouldn't be played anywhere near as much as it is, without mods. Neither would any of their other games, including New Vegas.

Bethesda make them, Mods make them remembered.

New Vegas wouldn't even run without mods for a lot of us. At least in the case of that game, it requires mods to even play. Though I will say, New Vegas is probably my least modded "Bethesda" game.

[EricHVela]

Just because the New Vegas team (who is not Bethsoft) was able to port Gamebryo (CE-like from a 3rd party that Bethsoft used to use) gameplay into UE4 for The Outer Worlds doesn't mean Bethsoft will.

Yes. It can be done as Obsidian did it. Yes. Bethsoft used a 3rd party engine in the past. Yes. The tools for UE are free for people to use (with certain $-making restrictions that seem really loose on the surface but are probably strict once someone hits that $ limit).

No. It won't be done in UE. Bethsoft is putting its bets into Creation Engine 2 (which has, so far, been underwhelming compared to things Bethsoft did in CE1).

[Fear2288]

Gamers: “Holy f**k Todd! Stop making stupid games like FO76 and Starfield, and releasing Skyrim on every platform in existence and just make TESVI already!!!”

Also Gamers: “Remake Skyrim in an entirely new engine please”

[Abisha]

because people keep buying old crap> starfield!

why would a company invest if people keep buying?.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Also some people think UE5 is the greatest thing on earth .... I hate to bring it to you it isn't EVERY game engine has it's strong points and weaknesses

[vee-kay]

Originally posted by put dispenser here:

Why doesn't Bethesda do a Skyrim remake with unreal engine 5?

I'd pay full price.

Seems like a bait post, but I'll take a bite (well, a nibble).

Even gaming companies that have made successful (or not-so successful) games in UE3 or UE4, are hesitant to jump onto UE5, because it is not optimized (it is too CPU & GPU heavy, so UE5 games won't work well on the average gaming PC) and games become clunky in it. And Epic's license for UE5 is not cheap (5% fees on gross revenue).

There are a lot of UE5 games upcoming, but only time will tell how they fare.
Popular games like Fortnite and PUBG are using UE5 partially, for new chapters of the game.

That said, in a surprising news (in March 2024), CD Projekt Red (CDPR) announced a new Witcher game, that'll be build on UE5 (rather than the company's inhouse REDEngine, which itself is beautiful, though it has some limitations). It seems that gaming companies have the dilemma on whether to spend a sizeable amount of time & efforts & money on inhouse gaming engines, or jump ship to UE5 but it may not have all the features they need for their game's vision (in which case, the vision might need to be toned down) and hope it can prove to be a successful endeavor (UE5 being CPU & GPU heavy means that it won't play well on older gaming PCs).

UE4 is still the reliable gold standard and the backbone of most games of the previous generations of games.

UE5 is poised to be the new champ on the block, but it still needs a lot of optimization and improvement.

Try it yourself: UE5 is free for students and indie games (that don't make more than $1million gross revenue; if your game's sales exceed that limit, you need to pay 5% fees on gross revenue to Epic Games, for UE5 license). You'll understand what I mean about CPU & GPU heaviness in UE5.

[sirdancealotthethird]

Originally posted by Zero McDohl:

Skyrim is already next gen enough for me, thanks to mods. I'd have no reason to buy it on a new engine, let alone lose all of the mods that have really helped this game grow and evolve.

To each their own of course OP, but I wouldn't be buying it.

[Drunk Was Papi]

unreal is trash and has too many dumb rules for devs