Skyblivion modder spent the day at Bethesda, chatting to Todd Howard and the team

Skyblivion is one of the most ambitious and highly anticipated mod releases of 2025, a full-blown Oblivion remake created using the Skyrim engine.

Skyblivion modder spent the day at Bethesda, chatting to Todd Howard and the team
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TL;DR: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, developed by Bethesda and Virtuos with Unreal Engine 5 visuals, has become a top-selling game while retaining its original gameplay. Meanwhile, the ambitious Skyblivion mod, rebuilding Oblivion in the Skyrim engine, is set for 2025, promising enhanced combat and redesigned dungeons.

Bethesda teamed up with developer Virtuos to release The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered in April. In a few short months, it has become one of the biggest-selling games of the year on PC and console platforms. With new Unreal Engine 5-powered visuals, the Oblivion Remastered looks like a completely different game compared to the 2006 original. However, its core gameplay and mechanics remain mostly unchanged.

This is because the cutting-edge 2025 visuals sit on top of the original game's engine, which means you've still got the lovable and dated Bethesda quirks that make Oblivion feel unlike anything else. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was a surprise launch. For fans wanting a full-blown remake, Skyblivion is an ambitious mod project rebuilding and redesigning the game from scratch in the Skyrim engine.

Skyblivion has been in development for over a decade, and its release is on track for 2025. Now, you might think that with the recent debut of Oblivion Remastered, there's a conflict of interest. That's not the case; key Skyblivion developer @Rebelzize was recently invited to Bethesda Game Studios' main offices to sit down and chat with the team; a short visit that turned into spending the day talking about Elder Scrolls and modding with Todd Howard and the team.

"They were fantastic," Rebelzize tells PC Gamer. "I didn't see a single person that didn't look like they absolutely loved being there. I spoke to a lot of people that worked on Oblivion, that worked on Skyrim, and that worked on Fallout. People that have been there for years and years and years."

"It's so fun to be able to talk with people that have used the tools that are on your level, like you use all these terms that no one ever understands, but these people understood, and they had so many interesting questions that no one ever asks," he adds. And when Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard stopped by (the game director of Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starfield), what the Skyblivion developer thought would be a quick hello turned into an in-depth conversation about working on Skyblivion and their personal life.

Even for those that have jumped into The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (as an Elder Scrolls fan I'm 65-hours in myself), Skyblivion is something to keep an eye on as it not only expands on things like combat and leveling but it redesigns every single dungeon in the game to make every cave and ruin feel like a brand-new adventure.