Following the surprise shadow drop of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered last week on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 by Bethesda and its partners at Virtuos Games, the fan-made project that’s been on the minds of many is Skyblivion — a colossal reimagining of the classic 2006 RPG being built within the engine of Skyrim Special Edition. At first, fans were worried that The Elder Scrolls’ developer had eaten the mod team’s lunch by launching the Unreal Engine 5 remaster.
However, the Skyblivion crew assuaged fears by explaining why the project is more of a from-the-ground-up remake than a remaster, and now, Bethesda has given the mod an official shoutout in the latest video on its YouTube channel.
The video in question is a developer spotlight of Dan Lee, the development lead on Bethesda’s Creations (curated DLC mods) program and the art director of Oblivion Remastered. In the video, Lee explains that he’s been working at the studio for over 20 years now, first starting as an intern on the original Oblivion before getting hired by coming up with an innovative way to landscape a waterfall in the Gamebryo Engine (the predecessor to the Creation Engine used in games like Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield).
Lee then details his full work history at the storied developer, the highlights of which include animating Liberty Prime in Fallout 3, creating many of the visual effects used in Fallout 4’s intro sequence, art reviewing in Fallout 76 and Starfield, and overseeing the Creation Club program (now just Creations). It’s a great interview that also touches on the best Skyrim Creations and technical challenges Bethesda and Virtuos had to overcome while making Oblivion Remastered, and I highly recommend giving it a watch using the link above or the embed below.
Towards the end of the spotlight, Lee took a few moments to call out Skyblivion — noting that even though he helped develop Oblivion Remastered, he’s still very excited to see what the team behind it has worked to create.
“Even though I worked on Oblivion Remastered, I’m still excited for Skyblivion,” he said, as footage taken directly from a few of the project’s trailers was shown. “I think what they’re doing is very special, and I am excited to see their interpretation of what we’ve done in the past. And I think it’s a great year for Oblivion fans.”
It’s a lovely little shoutout, and one that the Skyblivion devs took a moment to respond to on social media: “Dan, we’re just as excited to get Skyblivion into your hands this year as you are to play it! Thanks for the shoutout and kind words. You said it best: It is a great year for Oblivion fans.”
When you consider that other publishers and developers might send modders a cease and desist notice for working on a project like this, it’s great to see Bethesda — a studio famous for its mod support — encouraging and hyping up the hard work and creativity of its community. Notably, it also recently sent the entire Skyblivion team game keys for Oblivion Remastered, which is awesome.
I’m also in full agreement with Lee that Skyblivion is absolutely worth being excited for even though Oblivion Remastered has been released. Whereas the official remaster is more of a simpler glow-up that preserves the original gameplay experience and world design while drastically overhauling the visuals and implementing quality-of-life changes (such as a third-person mode that isn’t awful), Skyblivion is a full-fledged remake that’s been in the works since 2012.
Indeed, the mod is going to be incredibly transformative, with its creators planning to completely revamp many in-game locations based on concept art and lore, add and/or rework tons of Oblivion’s systems and enemies, restore cut content that didn’t make it into the original game, diversify Cyrodiil with new biomes, and more. For a full overview, check out the article I linked towards the start of this one.
Skyblivion is scheduled to release at some point later in 2025, and when it does, I have no doubt whatsoever that it will instantly stand tall as one of the best Skyrim mods ever made. Note that it’s sadly PC only, and will require owning both Skyrim Special Edition and the original Oblivion GOTY Deluxe Edition; in the meantime, you can jump into Oblivion Remastered (normally $50) for just $41.49 at Fanatical, or you can play through Xbox Game Pass on Xbox and PC.
