It's been a long time coming. Bethesda and Microsoft finally unveiled the long-awaited and rumored Oblivion Remastered today, and as an added surprise, they released it right alongside the announcement, a practice colloquially known as a shadow drop. Starting today you can purchase the lovely remastered version of an all-time classic RPG on PC, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X|S, or play it through your Game Pass subscription. It's exciting news for fans of the series, but it raises the question: Why now?
The timing is troublesome for other games, most pointedly Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The debut from new studio Sandfall Games has gotten some glowing preview coverage, but now it risks being overshadowed by Oblivion. After all, it is also a massive RPG, it's also launching at $50, and it's coming out in just two days, on April 24. That's some heavy overlap for competing games launching so closely, even without accounting for the power of the Elder Scrolls brand. Clair Obscur has gotten positive buzz, but it's not exactly a household name.
Perhaps most confusingly, Clair Obscur is also coming to Game Pass, which reads as a nice vote of confidence in the debut game and is a big get for Game Pass itself. Microsoft has been maintaining its promise to release new first-party games on Game Pass, but its third-party offerings have been less consistent. In recent months, the library has increasingly consisted of independent games, with the occasional rotation of bigger franchises like Grand Theft Auto. Expedition 33 looked to be an exciting new RPG with real franchise potential, and Microsoft was preparing to get in on the ground floor.
And yet, Microsoft threatens to sweep the legs out from under it by presenting a beloved RPG of its own just days before E33 launches. As Oblivion's publisher, it was entirely in control of the timing decisions here. One can't help but feel like Clair Obscur was, however unintentionally, done dirty.
Game Pass has exemplified a shifting ecosystem for video games. Cost is less of a consideration, and the all-you-can-eat model makes clear that Microsoft's real target is your time. The more time you spend sampling different games at the Game Pass buffet, the more Microsoft considers it a win. Two big RPGs launching side-by-side could certainly help accomplish that, but more practically, one is likely to cannibalize the other among RPG fans who would otherwise love to play both. And if one is going to swallow the other, it's more likely to be the recognizable name with fond memories, which also just happened to launch right before the other one.
For its part, Clair Obscur publisher Kepler Interactive leaned into the timing, joking that the timing is "like Barbenheimer"--a reference to the simultaneous 2023 release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, which resulted in memes full of movie fans making time to watch both back-to-back. Of course, in that cultural moment, the two were notable for being remarkably different from one another--not similar--making for a particularly strong contrast.
Meanwhile, the mood among indie games seems grim. Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou of Polygon Treehouse (Mythwrecked, Röki) said that "colossal games doing shadow drop launches is the stuff of nightmares for indies." Xalavier Nelson Jr. of Strange Scaffold, whose game Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 launched today, gave an even more blunt assessment, implying the rumored Oblivion Remastered release was at least partially the reason for its steep launch discount.
It's an exciting day for Elder Scrolls fans, and years after the success of Skyrim helped make the series a household name, it's good to see Oblivion modernized and made more approachable. But the timing has the potential to impact other deserving games, and thanks to the surprising nature of its release, they had no realistic method to get out of its way. Oblivion is getting its due; hopefully all the other games releasing alongside it can as well.
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The timing is troublesome for other games, most pointedly Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The debut from new studio Sandfall Games has gotten some glowing preview coverage, but now it risks being overshadowed by Oblivion. After all, it is also a massive RPG, it's also launching at $50, and it's coming out in just two days, on April 24. That's some heavy overlap for competing games launching so closely, even without accounting for the power of the Elder Scrolls brand. Clair Obscur has gotten positive buzz, but it's not exactly a household name.
Perhaps most confusingly, Clair Obscur is also coming to Game Pass, which reads as a nice vote of confidence in the debut game and is a big get for Game Pass itself. Microsoft has been maintaining its promise to release new first-party games on Game Pass, but its third-party offerings have been less consistent. In recent months, the library has increasingly consisted of independent games, with the occasional rotation of bigger franchises like Grand Theft Auto. Expedition 33 looked to be an exciting new RPG with real franchise potential, and Microsoft was preparing to get in on the ground floor.
And yet, Microsoft threatens to sweep the legs out from under it by presenting a beloved RPG of its own just days before E33 launches. As Oblivion's publisher, it was entirely in control of the timing decisions here. One can't help but feel like Clair Obscur was, however unintentionally, done dirty.
Game Pass has exemplified a shifting ecosystem for video games. Cost is less of a consideration, and the all-you-can-eat model makes clear that Microsoft's real target is your time. The more time you spend sampling different games at the Game Pass buffet, the more Microsoft considers it a win. Two big RPGs launching side-by-side could certainly help accomplish that, but more practically, one is likely to cannibalize the other among RPG fans who would otherwise love to play both. And if one is going to swallow the other, it's more likely to be the recognizable name with fond memories, which also just happened to launch right before the other one.
For its part, Clair Obscur publisher Kepler Interactive leaned into the timing, joking that the timing is "like Barbenheimer"--a reference to the simultaneous 2023 release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, which resulted in memes full of movie fans making time to watch both back-to-back. Of course, in that cultural moment, the two were notable for being remarkably different from one another--not similar--making for a particularly strong contrast.
Meanwhile, the mood among indie games seems grim. Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou of Polygon Treehouse (Mythwrecked, Röki) said that "colossal games doing shadow drop launches is the stuff of nightmares for indies." Xalavier Nelson Jr. of Strange Scaffold, whose game Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 launched today, gave an even more blunt assessment, implying the rumored Oblivion Remastered release was at least partially the reason for its steep launch discount.
1) We know survival horror matchroidvania RPG is a *wild* pitch, so we wanted to make it really accessible to jump in day 1 2) Since you get an even bigger discount if you own our other games, we hope it continues to encourage people to try ALL the leaps the studio is taking! 3) Oblivion remastered
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— Xalavier Nelson Jr.FIS Game Summit (@writnelson.bsky.social) April 22, 2025 at 11:28 AM
It's an exciting day for Elder Scrolls fans, and years after the success of Skyrim helped make the series a household name, it's good to see Oblivion modernized and made more approachable. But the timing has the potential to impact other deserving games, and thanks to the surprising nature of its release, they had no realistic method to get out of its way. Oblivion is getting its due; hopefully all the other games releasing alongside it can as well.
Source