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Good news for Elder Scrolls fans: Skyblivion, an ambitious fan-made recreation of Oblivion in the Skyrim engine, has finally received a release date after years of development updates. Skyblivion is an attempt to completely rebuild Skyrim’s predecessor into a modern engine.
Skyblivion’s latest trailer reveals that the project, which has been in development since 2017, is now due for release in 2025. While it’s still a long way off, it’s reassuring that the mod has a confirmed release window. At this rate, Skyblivion could well be out for Elder Scrolls 6.
The sunny horizons of the RPG’s setting, Cyrodiil, make for a welcome change from the harsh, wintry vistas of Skyrim. The trailer also treats us to all sorts of goodies, such as footage of the neoclassical imperial capital, the dominating palace tower that stands at the center, and glimpses of the sinister assassin guild, the Dark Brotherhood. In the closing moments of the video, we even get a look at the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon, the final boss of Oblivion. As terrifying as he is, this demon behemoth should really consider putting on a shirt.
Beyond the gate
As you might expect, recreating the entirety of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion within Skyrim is no small feat. If the mods official website (opens in new tab) says: “Making games takes time, [and] this goes double for a volunteer project the size of an AAA game that a team of full-time developers has worked on for years.”
Skyblivion’s development diaries attest to the astronomical work these devoted fan-turned-developers have put into the project. All of Oblivion’s original 3D assets had to be recreated along with every single environment on a huge map. Although Oblivion was released in 2006, it is a game with huge scope, packed with content.
Skyblivion is part of a group of volunteer projects titled: The Elder Scrolls renewal (opens in new tab). A group that aims to recreate all major, recent Elder Scrolls games with Bethesda’s modern tools. In addition to Skyblivion, TES Renewal hosts the Morroblivion and Skywind projects, mods that bring Morrowind into the Oblivion engine and Morrowind into the Skyrim engine, respectively. Clearly, participants in The Elder Scrolls Renewal projects have a lot on their plate.
Forgetting has a special place in my heart. The game stopped around my 13th birthday, I had just started a new school and life was pretty scary. Enter: Bethesda’s brand new open-world RPG. The tutorial’s first dungeon crawl deeply captivated me. I played the game relentlessly and spent hundreds of hours in Cyrodiil. I joined the Fighter’s Guild, explored long-lost ruins, and ultimately saved the world.
Oblivion was far from perfect. The voice acting was notoriously hit and miss, and the overlapping systems that made up the RPG’s open world often led to crazy shenanigans. Still, I feel Cyrodiil has a certain charm worth immortalizing.
Oblivion was a magical game that raised the bar for modern open-world experiences and welcomed a whole new generation of players to RPGs. The prospect of seeing the world of Oblivion realized with modern graphics has me counting down the days on my Elder Scrolls themed almanac to 2025.