Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has some capital-T thoughts on the reveal and release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered.
Yes, for the three or four folks reading this and hearing about Oblivion Remastered for the first time: it's here, it's available right now on consoles, PC, and Game Pass, and it looks great. However, the notoriously outspoken Ybarra isn't so sure it'll hold up against modern RPG classics like Elden Ring.
"I'm skeptical about 20 year old remasters," he said in a tweet. "What was once fantastic, now remastered, will never hold up against modern masterpieces like Elden Ring. The bar has simply moved from safe open world RPGs to what Elden Ring brought us all.
"I would love to be proven wrong. But I'm not," he added.
I hear you, but I think we've had so many "remasters" that nostalgia is limited. I could be wrong. But I think the gaming community wants fresh and new more than ever.April 22, 2025
I'm still downloading the 125GB Oblivion Remastered, and thus can't offer any meaningful commentary here, but I can look at reviews from people who have played it, and, well, early data says Ybarra's dead wrong on this one. The game very, very quickly shot to the top of Steam's global top-selling games despite its $50 price tag, and with almost 4,000 user reviews already posted at the time of writing, there's a clear consensus forming already: Oblivion's still got it, baby.
Right now, 82% of Steam reviews are positive, and the overwhelming majority of negative reviews seem to be performance-related. Not that those aren't valid concerns, but neither do they really support Ybarra's argument that the core game hasn't aged well.
In response to one comment about the value of nostalgia, Ybarra said, "I hear you, but I think we've had so many 'remasters' that nostalgia is limited. I could be wrong. But I think the gaming community wants fresh and new more than ever."
I think one factor Ybarra might be missing here is the giant market of players that were introduced to the Elder Scrolls world through Skyrim in 2011 and thus missed out on Oblivion's original run. That's the case for me, and I know I've been holding out for a modernized version of Oblivion to experience what many devotees still call the best game in the series, and I'm psyched about what Elder Scrolls veteran voice actor Wes Johnson said could be a "revelation" of a gaming experience.
