Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake details surface as leaker says it's coming in June

Fresh details of Bethesda's long-rumoured - but as yet unannounced - Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake have surfaced in a new leak, alongside word it could well be arriving this June.

An Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake - supposedly being developed in Unreal Engine 5 - was first rumoured in July 2023, when a former Virtuos employee posted to Reddit claiming it was in the works at the Chinese studio. Curiously, references to an Oblivion remaster then emerged later that year, spotted in an internal Microsoft document from 2020 that was leaked during the company's court battle with the FTC, lending at least some credence to the earlier claim.

But that wasn't the end of it. Earlier this month, a Virtuos technical art director updated their LinkedIn profile to highlight their work on a mysterious "unannounced Unreal Engine 5 remake", and now another former employee has - seemingly unintentionally - shared more explicit details of a Virtuos-developed Oblivion remake on their own website.

As reported by MP1st, the unnamed employee - who is said to have worked on the project between 2023 and 2024 - described the game as a "fully remade" version of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, developed (as previously rumoured) in Unreal 5. The former Virtuos employee is also said to have referenced six gameplay systems reworked for the remake: stamina, sneaking, blocking, archery, hit reaction, and HUD.

The new blocking system, as summarised by MP1st, supposedly takes inspiration from games including Souls-likes, to replace an original system considered too "boring" and "frustrating", while archery has been improved to make it "more playable and modern" in first- and third-person views. The new stamina system, meanwhile, is described as being "less frustrating", with the knockdown that occurs when stamina is depleted now less frequent.

As for the Oblivion remake's updated sneaking, it'll apparently feature highlighted Sneak icons and reworked damage calculations, and that's alongside the introduction of hit reactions to improve the response to damage inflicted on the player and NPCs. Additionally, MP1st says the former employee referenced an updated HUD intended to be "easier to understand and more aesthetically appealing to young players."

MP1st's report follows recent claims by reliable leaker NateTheHate that an Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake would be launching this June. Before all that, of course, developer Bethesda will actually need to announce the thing - and with Microsoft's Xbox Developer Direct currently scheduled for next week, an opportunity is looming.