Game, Complain, Repeat

So Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remastered has been released. No preamble. No lengthy waiting period. Hell, not even an announced release date! Now this may speak to just out of touch I am with the current slate of gaming releases, and the conduct of games studios to not even promote software you’d expect would warrant advertising, considering the time, effort and money that goes into any game. Especially from a publisher as renowned as Bethesda. But here we are, relishing the remake of a game I remember with such fondness, it could almost be like I was reminiscing about my own daughter walking for the first time. Oblivion was not only my first Elder Scrolls game, but my first Bethesda title. By the time I’d gotten around to playing it, Skyrim was only a year or so from its initial release on the PlayStation. And though the exploits of the Dragonborne would receive consistent, some might argue excessive rereleases, Oblivion was somewhat neutered, perhaps even ridiculed for its outdated combat, graphics and now legendary voice work.

So it’s strange to me that after such an extended period, Bethesda has just shadow dropped a remaster for a game that could conceivably just release again on modern consoles, with minimal effort and cost? I’m not mad, just curious. Sure it might have been nice if they had given me, but only me, some notification about its impending release, just to give me some time to budget for it. But why so mysterious with what appears to be a well polished, dare I say, playable Bethesda game? And to make it immediately available on the PlayStation, is shrewd marketing by Microsoft. You relocate Xbox exclusive content, by a company you paid an exorbitant amount of money to purchase for the sole reason of exclusivity, announce to your competitor “hey look, we can play nicely”. And earn an additional stream of revenue from a competitors store. And considering the dearth of PlayStation exclusives, that aren’t rereleases of “The Last Of Us”, this must rankle Sony.

What I hope this does is twofold: remind players just how wonderful Oblivion is. But also provoke Sony out of their own self-infflicted inertia, and create the Sony games that used to make Xbox jealous.