• A 10-year modding effort to remake Oblivion in the Skyrim engine is finally nearing completion.
• Called “Skyblivion,” the project is not just a port but a full remake of Oblivion with new assets and updated quests and locations.
• It will be released for free for owners of Skyrim on PC and its team is always looking for new members to speed the project up.

After 10 years of work, the community-based endeavour to remake Oblivion within the Skyrim engine has now progressed far enough to have an official release date. That being 2025, which is still long before we will probably see the latest official Elder Scrolls game from Bethesda.

Called “Skyblivion” the project is being handled by the team of volunteers at TESRenewal and will see the entirety of Oblivion, including quests, characters, dungeons, monsters and locations revived using Skyrim’s engine.

TESRenewal says “We aim to bring ​The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to a new generation of gamers and re-introduce it to long-time fans of the series.”

The team has spent significant amounts of time and effort painstakingly remaking and revamping assets influenced by Bethesda’s team, with a new creative flair. As seen in the team’s release date announcement trailer published on Sunday, Cyrodill is not only ported but remade.

There also seems to be a reshade added that brightens up the usually unsaturated looks of Skyrim, perhaps to be more reminiscent of Oblivion’s infamous bloom. We can also get a look a some new assets, including models of minotaurs, scamps and ogres, enemies from Oblivion that weren’t included in Skyrim.

Not content with simply remaking each and every detail from Bethesda, the TESRenewal team is also breathing new life and in some cases bettering parts of the original Oblivion that some fans felt were let-downs. This includes certain revamps, and in one part of the trailer you can see a necromancer that may be series villain Mannimarco with a host of undead and a massive dungeon behind him.

In the original Oblivion, fans felt that the Mannimarco and Mages Guild necromancer quest was too small and limited, and that the villain’s reveal wasn’t grand enough for the character.

Armours, weapons, dungeons and more have also been revamped to not just have a higher fidelity but to be artistically superior as well, and it also seems that new voice actors have been contracted by the team.

Despite it being a group of modders and part-time devs, the care and scope of the project is breathtaking, and even makes Skyrim’s 12-year-old engine look revived. Check out some of the gameplay screenshots and concept artwork from the team.

About the 2025 release date of the mod, which will be free and available for download for players of Skyrim and Skyrim: Special Edition on PC, team leader Rebelzize comments that “Making games takes time, this goes double for a volunteer project the size of a AAA game that took a team of fulltime DEVS years to make.”

“Regardless we would like to share today that Skyblivion is in a state where we can promise a 2025 release at the latest. We hope with your support to finish the final steps in completing our dream, maybe even beating our own estimation.”

Indeed, since the project is volunteer-based, the team is always on the lookout for talented developers or amateur designers to contribute to the massive effort. The more skilled folk on board, the faster the mod will be finished and the sooner players can enjoy this labour of love.

If you want to see if you can take part in the Skyblivion project and join the team at TESRenewal, you can apply here.

[Image – TESRenewal]