Summary
- An alleged former Virtuos employee claimed in 2023 that the studio was working on an UE5 Oblivion remake.
- Leaked FTC documents likewise revealed that Bethesda planned to launch an Oblivion remaster in fiscal year 2022.
- We haven’t heard anything about the project since, but a new LinkedIn listing for an unannounced UE5 remake has reignited rumours of Bethesda bringing back Oblivion.
Back in 2023, a Reddit user claiming to be a former Virtuos employee alleged that the studio was working on an Oblivion remake in Unreal Engine 5.
Shortly after, Microsoft documents were leaked during the FTC case over the Activision Blizzard King buyout, revealing that an Oblivion remaster was planned for fiscal year 2022. So, at the very least, we know that Bethesda had plans to bring back Oblivion at one point.
We haven’t heard much about the project since, but as reported by True Achievements, Virtuos technical art director Oleksii Moskovchenko’s LinkedIn profile revealed that the company’s Shanghai studio is developing an “unannounced UE5 PS5/XSX/PC remake”. This could be the same Oblivion remake that the alleged former employee discussed.
Is It The Oblivion Remake, Or Something Else Entirely?
There’s just one problem: the former Virtuos employee said that the Oblivion remake was in development at the company’s Paris studio, not Shanghai. It’s worth considering that this might not be Oblivion at all; Virtuos could be working on an entirely different remake.
That being said, when the alleged former employee made their claims, it appeared to have been very early on in development. They weren’t even sure if it was a remaster or remake by that point. So, it could have feasibly been passed to another studio in the years since.
With another Xbox Dev Direct underway (as reported by Jez Corden), if this is an Oblivion remake, perhaps we’ll find out soon. Most of the other projects leaked in the FTC documents appear to have been announced, Doom Year Zero being The Dark Ages, and the unknown “licensed IP game” likely being Blade. That just leaves Oblivion and Dishonored 3, but with Arkane Austin’s closure, the latter was likely cancelled.
Set in Cyrodiil, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is an open-world action RPG that sees you attempt to stop the Mythic Dawn cult from opening a portal to the aforementioned Oblivion. Critically acclaimed, it was expanded upon in Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles.