Virtuos Remake: Real or Nah?

[Fear2288]

Who thinks this Virtuos Oblivion remake is actually real?

The buzz around it has been at an all time high recently with the latest claims being that it’ll be “shadow dropped”, and it’s gonna occur before the end of April.

For those unaware, “shadow dropping” is when something is released with no official announcement/reveal - it just appears in stores. Alternatively, it can also include the practice of announcing/revealing something and then releasing it within days.

I’m not really sure whether to believe or not.

There has been some interesting clues and pieces of evidence pointing to this thing’s existence, and I’m inclined to agree with YouTuber Mr. Matty when he says there’s been a bit too much “smoke” for there not to be a “fire” of some kind.

What I feel is most interesting though is that despite all this talk and rumor milling…BGS and Virtuos have remained silent - neither confirming or denying.

While these rumors have been circulating for awhile, the last month or so they’ve been towards the forefront of gaming talk - being frequently covered and discussed by many different YouTubers, gaming news sites, and the community at large. I’m sure both BGS and Virtuos are well aware of them and they’ve been getting pummeled with requests for comment.

But - as far as I know - they’ve chosen to stay silent about it.

I can’t imagine there’s any real benefit to letting the rumors continue. I doubt it’s driving up sales of Oblivion in any meaningful way. More likely, anyone interested in buying or playing Oblivion again is waiting to see if this materializes - because why bother buying or starting a new playthrough of the original when a remake could be coming out any day now?

In fact, allowing the rumors to continue would only benefit this thing if it’s real. The rumors and those covering these rumors and discussing them are essentially acting as the game’s marketing campaign - drawing peoples’ attention to this thing’s possible existence, generating hype and expectation for it, and getting people in the head space to dive back into Oblivion and entice new/younger players to experience it for the first time.

Furthermore, allowing people to think that this thing exists - when it doesn’t - is just sorta a ♥♥♥♥ move.

Sure, a studio doesn’t have to address or comment on every rumor floating around out there about it or its games, but this one has gotten pretty out of hand if it’s not true. It’s gotten a lot of attention, has generated a lot of videos and articles, and has a lot of people either believing that it’s true or that it’s false.

With no real benefit for them by not denying it, I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t come out and say “sorry guys, this isn’t a thing” if it actually isn’t.

The only ones benefitting here - whether it’s real or not - are the content creators and news sites (for all the clicks and views). Though, if it turns out to be false, the ones who’ve been proclaiming that it’s real will of course have their judgement and future predictions scrutinized a bit more and less people will be apt to believe them.

I don’t know…I think it’s possible this thing exists and it may on the horizon. Ideally, they’ve got to release it before Skyblivion - that’s for sure. Releasing it after Skyblivion won’t do them any favors in regard to PC sales. PC users will just invest their time in Skyblivion and will be less likely to buy the remake when they’re already playing through a new and improved Oblivion - for free. Those same users though would be pretty likely to buy/play the remake if it comes out before Skyblivion.

I’m not sure about the idea of a shadow drop though. That’s a really uncommon practice, especially for a AAA game studio. In the past, BGS has had short times between official reveal and release - but not THAT short.

Thoughts?

[Hypertext Eye]

I'll say nay for one reason. If BGS had plans for an Oblivion remake, they never would have given permission for Skyblivion to be distributed. Skyblivion is expected to release this year.

Furthermore, allowing people to think that this thing exists - when it doesn’t - is just sorta a ♥♥♥♥ move.

It doesn't matter how BGS responds. The rumor has built up too much hype, and people will believe what they want to believe. Someone has an interest in perpetuating the rumor, and they will continue to do so even if BGS denies.

I’m not sure about the idea of a shadow drop though. That’s a really uncommon practice, especially for a AAA game studio.

Nintendo is fond of doing shadow drops. However, BGS isn't Nintendo.

[SpeedFreak1972]

It might be real, however it's curious that there's almost none official news about it.

[Fear2288]

@Hyper

I wouldn’t hinge the existence of an official remake on their leaving Skyblivion alone.

Skyblivion has been in the works since as early as 2014, and the team has been in contact with BGS numerous times over the years to ensure that everything they’ve been doing is a-ok with BGS.

As much as people like to ♥♥♥♥ talk BGS and make stupid claims that they “hate modding” and are “jealous” of modders, they’re actually one of - if not the - most mod-friendly game studios out there. I 100% believe that if this remake exists, and they COULD pull the plug on Skyblivion, BGS would choose not to - both out of respect for the Skyblivion team and their work, and because it would be a TERRIBLE move for BGS’ image.

You also need to consider that there are three major things that could make an official remake worthwhile, even when Skyblivion exists:

1. Skyblivion is PC-only and it’ll stay that way. It’s reliance on files from both Skyrim and Oblivion, and its size make it more-than-likely impossible to make available on consoles. An official remake will not have this problem.

2. If this thing exists, it’s on Unreal Engine 5. We can sit here and debate whether or not UE5 is actually a good engine, but regardless, it’ll be on an engine that’s not 14 years old and could potentially look and run better than Skyblivion. It’ll sell copies on the UE5 name alone, and certainly if it looks and performs better than Skyblivion.

3. Skyblivion will NOT include the Shivering Isles DLC. It MIGHT come years down the road, but it won’t be available on release. An official remake is likely to include the base game and all the DLC. For many Oblivion fans, The Shivering Isles is a large part of why they love the game, and that DLC is usually considered one of the best BGS has ever made.

Console availability, UE5, and The Shivering Isles is definitely enough reason for them to make and release an official remake, even with Skyblivion’s impending debut.

@Speed

Define “official news”.

There’s been a TON of videos and articles about this rumored remake coming from numerous gaming sites, YouTube content creators, and individual leakers and insiders.

To my knowledge, there has been nothing from BGS or Virtuous about it…which was a point I made: that they’ve refrained from confirming or denying the rumors.

These rumors have been out there for at least two years now, and recently talk about this thing has reached its pinnacle with the latest word indicating an April “shadow drop”. There’s no possible way that BGS and Virtuous are unaware of all this, and they no doubt are getting requests for comment.

So it warrants the question: if this thing doesn’t exist, why don’t they just say so?

It’s not like this rumor is someone on X saying that a friend of a friend whose uncle knows a guy that works with someone says it’s true. This has been a consistently hot topic for a year or more and has been at its hottest for the last few weeks.

If it doesn’t exist, I can’t see any real benefit for either of them to keep their mouths shut at this stage.

[Freeman]

Baseless Twitter rumors and speculation fueled by clickbait Youtubers.

Not a single person who's claimed that an Oblivion remaster/remake is in the works has provided so much as a single shred of evidence. Doesn't matter if any of them are reliable if they don't provide any evidence, or proof, or their source to back up their claims.

The only ''evidence'' that we have is a 2020 document that mentioned an Oblivion remaster that was slated for a 2022 release... which didn't happen. The document that also mentioned a ''Fallout Shelter Online'', a Fallout 3 remaster, Starfield being released in 2021, TES VI in 2024, along with a Dishonored 3.

The document is outdated, it only proves that the idea of an Oblivion remaster was brought up at some point at Bethesda.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Which are still rumors I mean if it drops fine, but there has to be more if they want to sell .... but we'll see.

Also don't really know if it will be that successful don't forget it's apparently on UE 5 so modding will be difficult

[Todd]

Even if it is real, it (allegedly) uses UE5, which means that there won't be any real modding support which is bread and butter for Elder Scrolls games.
But, you know what's real, will have modding support and is due to come out this year (for free)? Skyblivion.

[psychotron666]

If it is real, it's not a remake but a GTA definitive edition remaster with AI upscaling of graphics and otherwise the exact same game.

0% chance it's an actual remake.

[Hypertext Eye]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

So it warrants the question: if this thing doesn’t exist, why don’t they just say so?

So you're going to ignore my earlier response to this question. OK.

[El Presidente]

knowing bethesda: they will drop their remake .... wich will be buggy and failt to deliver whilst simultainiously shutting down skyblivion.

Who would buy their remake if they can get a better product for free?

Lets not kid ourself: Bethesa was always worse then the modders.

It will be the final nail in the coffin of bethesda modding.

[MISO4EVER]

I hope it’s not I don’t want a soulless third party remake, especially with rumored souls like combat in a tes game not even made by Bethesda sounds awful. I hope it’s not true

[MISO4EVER]

Originally posted by El Presidente:

knowing bethesda: they will drop their remake .... wich will be buggy and failt to deliver whilst simultainiously shutting down skyblivion.

Who would buy their remake if they can get a better product for free?

Lets not kid ourself: Bethesa was always worse then the modders.

It will be the final nail in the coffin of bethesda modding.

It’s supposedly made by virtuous studios which is not Bethesda so 🤷🏻‍♂️ show me on the doll where Bethesda hurt you.

[MISO4EVER]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

If it is real, it's not a remake but a GTA definitive edition remaster with AI upscaling of graphics and otherwise the exact same game.

0% chance it's an actual remake.

I’m fine with a remaster it’s no different than Skyrim SE but a full remake is a horrible idea

[Horror Pigeon]

Bethesda could pull a valve black mesa and make skyblivion the remake.

[Fear2288]

So apparently Virtuos just made an oopsie and posted a series of images to their website showing off their Oblivion remake. Obviously, they got taken down but they were up long enough for people to see them, save them, and even save the original links to them on Virtuos’ website (which now return a 403 Forbidden).

Looking at the images myself, they appear genuine. They’re not a modded Skyrim or images from Skyblivion, nor do they appear to be from a different game or the product of AI/Photoshop.

It’s allegedly releasing Monday, April 21st 2025.

I guess in less than a week, we’ll know if this thing truly exists or not.

[Rez Elwin]

I didn't, but given the source of those images, it seems pretty real to me.

I will not be buying it, not on release at least. It's still being made on the base gamebryo engine, so I suspect bugs and issues until a few patches get pushed out. I'll watch videos and check the discussions to see if it's something I'm interested in. We know Skyblivion is planned to come this year, and it's looking really good as well.

As I have said in the past, the only thing the remaster has over Skyblivion is the DLC. Which appears is going to cost more. It appears there isn't going to be just one full version of the game, they are releasing a normal version and a deluxe edition.