Oblivion Remastered: Imminent Release Rumors Swirl
If you’re a veteran of the Elder Scrolls universe—a series that’s shaped open-world RPGs for decades, offering everything from massive paid quests to surprisingly great free RPGs available online—you’ve likely been following the whispers about an Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Well, those whispers have turned into a flood of leaks and mounting evidence. The buzz hit fever pitch today, April 21st, suggesting we might be just hours from an official reveal, probably a shadow drop release. Honestly, it’s becoming one of the worst-kept secrets in gaming right now.
April 21st/22nd Speculation: Is It Happening?
The excitement really kicked off with reports pointing to a potential launch today, April 21st, around 12 PM Eastern Time. That specific moment passed without an official word from Bethesda, but the sheer amount of related info popping up suggests a release is still incredibly close—maybe later today, maybe tomorrow, April 22nd.
What kind of info? Users started seeing Oblivion Remastered appear in their libraries on the cloud gaming service Boosteroid. This sighting was linked back to a specific “Unknown App” (ID 2623190) on SteamDB, which happened to be updated just a few days ago. On top of that, sharp-eyed fans spotted game pages for Oblivion Remastered indexed by Bing search results, apparently linked to Virtuos Games (the studio strongly rumored to be handling the remaster) in several languages. These pages lead nowhere now, but their brief existence speaks volumes. The consensus among insiders? Expect an unannounced “shadow drop” release this week.
The Trail of Clues: How We Got Here
This sudden frenzy didn’t come out of nowhere. The first real sign of an Oblivion Remastered showed up back in September 2023, thanks to internal Microsoft documents made public during the FTC trial. An “Oblivion Remaster” was right there on a Bethesda roadmap.
Things went quiet for a bit, then heated up again in January 2025. News surfaced, supposedly from a former Virtuos employee’s resume, tying the studio to the project and dropping big technical details: the remaster is apparently running on Unreal Engine 5. That same leak mentioned planned tweaks to core gameplay elements like the HUD, stamina, sneaking, blocking, archery, and hit reactions. More recently, actual screenshots, again traced back to Virtuos, gave us a first look at the potential graphical upgrade.
Unreal Engine 5, Huge File Size, and All the DLC
Moving to Unreal Engine 5 is a big deal, promising a massive visual upgrade. Backing this up are recent leaks putting the game’s file size at a whopping ~121 GB on PC. That’s a world away from the original’s tiny sub-6 GB install and lines up with the demands of modern UE5 games.
Good news on the content front, too: trusted sources indicate the remaster will pack in all the original DLC, including the fan-favorite Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine expansions, right out of the box. It looks set to be the complete package for modern systems.
Platforms, Game Pass, and Price Talk
So, where can you play it? Leaked materials point to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. And here’s the kicker for subscribers: there are strong signs it’ll land Day One on Xbox Game Pass. Pricing is still anyone’s guess—maybe $40-$50, maybe a full $70—but Game Pass looks like the main route for many Xbox and PC players regardless.
The Skyblivion Factor
Of course, you can’t talk about reviving Oblivion without mentioning Skyblivion. This incredible fan project, rebuilding Oblivion within the Skyrim engine, has been trucking along for nearly a decade and is also aiming for a 2025 release. How does the official remaster news affect them? Rebelzize, the Skyblivion Project Lead, kept it positive, saying the official remaster “changes nothing” for their passion project and calling it a “win-win” for fans getting “twice the amount of Oblivion this year.” It definitely gives players an interesting choice: the official UE5 version or the community’s Skyrim-engine vision.
Verdict: Waiting for the Green Light
Look, Bethesda and Virtuos haven’t said a word officially. But with this much consistent smoke—internal documents, developer links, engine details, file sizes, DLC info, platform leaks, even listings briefly hitting services—it feels almost certain that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is real and launching very, very soon.
The only real question left is when they’ll finally hit the button. Later today? Tomorrow? This week? All eyes are on Bethesda.
What do you think? Ready for a surprise trip back to Cyrodiil? Will you be jumping in via Game Pass? Let us know your predictions, and if you’re leaning towards the official remaster, Skyblivion, or maybe even both, down in the comments!
