The dream of Skyblivion goes back over a decade as a team of fans came together to use The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s engine to fully recreate and re-imagine Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as a modern RPG. At the beginning of 2023, the team set a 2025 premiere for Skyblivion. However, that’s no longer the plan and Skyblivion has been pushed to next year. The good news is that the latest dev video shows off how much has been finished and what remains to be done.
Skyblivion lead Rebelzize narrates the video as he offers a guide to where things stand. According to Rebelzize, most of the work has already been done and over 70 volunteer contributors are still hard at work trying to get the ambitious mod across the finish line.
When this project was started, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was far out of date. Earlier this year, Bethesda released Oblivion Remastered, which could have taken the wind out of this team’s project. Instead, Rebelzize and others praised the remaster as a “win-win” for the community. In recognition for their work, Bethesda gave copies of Oblivion Remastered to the entire Skyblivion mod team.
However, it hasn’t been entirely harmonious for team Skyblivion. Earlier this year, a former member of the team spoke out against efforts to rush the mod out before it’s ready. As impressive as Skyblivion is, no one is getting paid for it, and the ex-team member is against the crunch-time mindset that was making things more difficult.
For now, it looks like Skyblivion is worth the wait. Although Bethesda does offer some support for mods on consoles, it will only be available on PC. Skyblivion will also require players to own both Elder Scrolls 5 and Elder Scrolls 4 in order to work.
