It only took a few hours for Oblivion Remastered to sail past 120,000 concurrent players on Steam, and even hit an all-time peak of 182,298 earlier today. But despite all the hype and excitement surrounding the remaster, ex-Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra doesn't seem to think it's a winner.
"I'm sceptical about 20-year-old remasters," Mike Ybarra, former Blizzard president, says on social media. "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."
"I don't mean soulslike, I mean the discovery, the classes, the combat system, etc," Ybarra clarifies. "Just a new level of quality."
It's a pretty scathing read that doesn't really hold up. Yes, Elden Ring was incredible, but it didn't actually have a lasting effect on how RPGs are approached, much like how Breath of the Wild didn't change how developers fill open-world environments. Assassin's Creed Shadows has a huge but shallow open world, and it performed pretty well, achieving the second-highest day-one sales revenue for an Assassin's Creed game.
But Ybarra doesn't just take issue with whether Oblivion Remastered can hold its own with modern RPGs. "I think we've had so many 'remasters' that nostalgia is limited," Ybarra says. "I could be wrong. But I think the gaming community wants fresh and new more than ever.
I'm skeptical about 20 year old remasters. 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…April 22, 2025
Oblivion Remastered offers a massive visual update with new real-time lighting, character models, ambient details like insects and fish, and redesigned menus and interfaces. While that alone may not be too exciting, Virtuos does seem to modernise certain old features, such as the levelling system, which is now inspired by Skyrim's. The third-person camera has been updated with a reticle and functionality, and you can now sprint.
But sometimes it's important to know when to exercise restraint and not change old features. While lockpicking and persuasion have new visuals, both have retained their original weirdness and difficulty. And the NPC dialogue may have a couple of new recordings, but the old, awkward conversation timing will be left in place.
I'll always be first in line to call out lazy remasters or even remakes, but you can't accuse Oblivion Remastered of being out of touch when it's the fourth on SteamDB's concurrent player count in the last 24 hours and has shot to the top of Steam's best sellers list. Never underestimate a millennial gamer's love for horse armour.
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