Skyblivion only has one region of the map left to finish: 'We are nearly ready to release an entirely remastered Elder Scrolls game'

The Path To Release (Skyblivion Roadmap 2024) - YouTube

The TESRenewal modding group has been working on Skyblivion, a remastered version of Oblivion playable in Skyrim Special Edition, since 2018 "in earnest" though the project "officially started over 11 years ago," as the latest progress video explains. Said video also mentions how close to completion Skyblivion is, fast approaching its scheduled 2025 release. "We are nearly ready to release an entirely remastered Elder Scrolls game," the team says.

More specifically, they say, "We're finalizing the world map, with only the Nibenay region on Cyrodiil's eastern border left to complete. Massive swathes of the map are ready for the Hero of Kvatch to explore."

While 93% of the cells that make up Skyblivion's landscape are complete, only 44% of them have been navmeshed—a process that tells NPCs which parts of the terrain are traversable. There's still a ways to go on that front, and that's why the team is calling for volunteers to help them get Skyblivion over the finishing line. If you're an experienced modder, head to the volunteers section of their website to sign up.

As previously mentioned, Skyblivion won't include material from Oblivion's expansions at launch. "We are currently focused on the main game experience to ensure it is released on time," the team says. "Once the main game of Skyblivion is released we will look into how we can tackle DLCs and we will be sure to share more information on our next steps closer to the time. We're less than a year away from our target release of Skyblivion."

Ever since an Oblivion remaster appeared in a leaked list of unannounced Bethesda games (alongside remasters of Fallout 3 and Dishonored), there have been rumors of an official HD version of Oblivion in the works. I've seen nothing concrete, however, and would still be keen to check out Skyblivion even if it did end up duelling with Bethesda's own take on a fancier Cyrodiil. As our Ted Litchfield put it, Skyblivion is one of several exciting total conversion mods worth keeping an eye on.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.