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‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’: Why Bethesda Chose ‘Skyrim’ To Remaster And Not ‘Oblivion’

By Bryan Star
Published on: 15:09 PST, Aug 7, 2016

Bethesda has announced a remaster for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and mods will be accessible to console players at some point in the future.

The reception for Skyrim has been relatively positive. Fans are eager to get their hands on a remastered version of the game, and it’s also been confirmed that all DLC will be included when players purchase the game. This would be the perfect time for fans to dive into the game, especially if they didn’t get the chance to play the PlayStation 3 or PC version. With all of the content combined, it’s a worthwhile purchase; mods will present a plethora of ways to play the game, especially with the staggering number of them present already.

Unfortunately, there are some who believe that developer Bethesda should have remastered Oblivion instead of Skyrim. The reason for this is that Oblivion is older, and some fans believe that it’s redundant to release Skyrim to console with so little incentive for those who have played it on PC. Of course, mods have been available to PC users for quite some time. Players can turn dragons into trains, adjust voices to hilarious effect, use lightsabers, and even circumvent abilities to become immortal for the duration of the game.

With these things in mind, it’s understandable that some fans may not be excited for Skyrim to be released in a way that they’ve had access to for a while. In a report by Gamespot, Bethesda addressed why Skyrim was a better choice for a remaster than Oblivion. Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines had this to say in regard to the effort that would have been involved in remastering Oblivion.

“Oblivion is 10 years old, so the amount of work for that engine and that tech to bring it and remaster it and do all the things we wanted to do was significant,” Hines explained. “It’s not impossible, but it was mountainous. It was either like, go make an entire new game or do Skyrim.”

With this in mind, it makes sense to port a newer game so that less work would be involved.

Along with being a remaster with the DLC included, Gamingbolt reports that Skyrim will be a separate game for PC owners who purchase it on Steam. Additionally, old achievements will not transfer over with the port. This means that save games will also not transfer over from the old game, leaving players to start anew with a fresh character for Skyrim.

Skyrim isn’t the first game to receive mods on console, as a similar option is being presented to those who purchase Fallout 4. Could this be an indication that we’ll be seeing games with mods on a regular basis? Such speculation will be left up to developers. It would certainly open up a world of possibilities for players. Marketing boss Pete Hines weighed in on this angle, stating that the idea for Skyrim is exactly like Fallout 4.

“The idea is that it’s exactly the same way as Fallout 4,” Hines said. “Skyrim Special Edition on PC is free only if you own Skyrim and all of the DLC. It also has a new creation kit. It doesn’t just work with all of the existing mods; they will have to take that mod and run it through the new creation kit and publish it to Bethesda Net. Then that would be available on console.”

The Skyrim remaster will be available on PlayStation 4, XBox One, and PC. Retailing at $60, it’s the perfect time to revisit Skyrim or to get into it for the first time.

Are you excited for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim remaster? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

[Image Via Bethesda]

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