Bethesda has launched a new update for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered for the Nintendo Switch 2, fixing a key issue affecting owners of the game for almost a month. The latest Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered patch continues Bethesda’s post-launch support for the RPG following its arrival on Nintendo’s newest hardware earlier this year, but fans are still hoping for fixes to the game’s bigger issues.
Oblivion Remastered arrived on Switch 2 in August, bringing Bethesda and porting studio Virtuos’ upgraded version of the 2006 RPG to Nintendo’s hybrid console, with some visual changes to support the weaker hardware. Its first major Switch 2 update followed on September 17, fixing eight different crashes alongside problems involving quests, water walking, underwater breathing, and missing animations. Unfortunately, players quickly noticed that the patch had also made Oblivion Remastered noticeably blurrier, with increased ghosting and reduced image detail in both docked and handheld play. Bethesda acknowledged the reports soon afterward and began investigating the problem.
Bethesda Releases Follow-Up Update for Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2
The newest patch for Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2 has now resolved the visual degradation introduced by Update 1.1. According to the publisher, affected Switch 2 players experienced “increased image blurring, ghosting, and reduced visual quality” after installing the September patch, leaving the game looking significantly worse than at launch. That makes this release more of a corrective hotfix than a substantial update, with Bethesda not listing any additional quest, gameplay, or performance changes alongside the visual fix. Players who held off on Update 1.1 because of its image-quality problems should be all set to update the game without the same graphical regression problems as before.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
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That said, this update doesn’t necessarily mean Oblivion Remastered‘s broader technical problems are over. The game has faced significant performance criticism since its original 2025 launch, with stuttering and inconsistent frame times remaining common complaints, especially on PC, even after multiple patches. Oblivion Remastered‘s Update 1.2 on consoles and PC made a more serious attempt to improve things by reducing open-world hitching, improving frame times, and optimizing water, weather, shadows, animation, and other systems, but it never completely eliminated those issues. After its August launch, it became clear that the Switch 2 release inherited some of the same problems, with Digital Foundry noting frequent hitches and regular frame-rate drops below its 30 FPS target.
Oblivion Remastered‘s lingering technical issues may hopefully be fixed soon, as Bethesda has already suggested a larger update for other platforms could eventually be coming. When the Switch 2 edition launched, the publisher acknowledged requests for another Oblivion Remastered patch and said the Nintendo version includes optimizations it is looking to bring to other platforms. However, no timetable has been provided, and the October patch certainly isn’t that promised overhaul. For PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S players still hoping for more substantial performance improvements, Bethesda’s continued work on the remaster is encouraging, but the update many are waiting for remains up in the air.
How Bethesda ultimately handles Oblivion Remastered in the coming months or years could also matter beyond Cyrodiil as well. The company confirmed in July that remasters of both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are in development, but it hasn’t revealed release dates or how extensively it will modernize either game. Oblivion Remastered proved that one of Bethesda’s older RPGs can get a shiny new presentation without completely discarding the game underneath, but its technical problems also show how complicated that process can get. While the October fix is welcome news for Switch 2 owners, if Bethesda can eventually solve the bigger performance problems too, it may give fans a little more confidence about whatever treatment awaits the Capital Wasteland and Mojave.
- Released
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April 22, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Violence
