Physical Deluxe Edition pre-orders are now live via retailers such as VGP, and it seems that the entire experience is on a cart rather than a Game-Key Card. Alongside the base game, Oblivion Remastered includes Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles, its two acclaimed expansions, providing a substantial experience.

However, it’s worth noting that the remake has faced extensive criticism after launching last year. Two patches went live to fix various issues but ended up ruining the game’s performance for many players while also introducing several new bugs. Virtuos didn’t provide any additional support afterwards, essentially leaving Oblivion Remastered to rot on other platforms.

There’s some hope that the Switch 2 release could result in performance improvements across the board, finally addressing the most egregious issues. Stay tuned for more updates on that front – and how the remake takes advantage of the console – in the coming months.

The game’s allegedly been rated by the ESRB for the platform, according to Wario64 on BlueSky. That could mean a potential release date in the coming days, though as always, it’s best to wait until an official announcement is made. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to get excited at the prospect of playing this one again on a new platform, given how much fun we had with it when reviewing it last year.

However, our enthusiasm is a bit dampened by the numerous bugs and performance issues that have been plaguing it since then. You might say that it’s Bethesda being Bethesda, but that’s still no reason to abruptly drop support, especially when there’s such a dedicated fan base. Here’s to hoping that the new port irons out those issues, and perhaps even brings a patch for other platforms with it.

We’re wondering how it’s going to navigate a rather crowded calendar of releases this year, thanks to Grand Theft Auto 6’s release looming large over the gaming world, but we’re sure it could find more than a few takers despite that.

Lo and behold, it was more than a gorgeous facelift. The leveling was fixed, and it actually felt worthwhile to improve the skills you wanted. Combat felt more responsive, and animations were updated. But more importantly, it felt like the original updated for the modern age, retaining all the bizarre charm and imaginative world-building that made Cyrodiil and the Hero of Kvatch’s story so compelling.

Truly a blast from the past, when Bethesda delivered a compelling narrative that you wanted to dive further into alongside interesting and varied side content. The addition of the Shivering Isles – widely considered one of the finest expansions ever – made it an even sweeter deal at $50, despite the admittedly annoying Digital Deluxe Edition with its armor sets, weapons and not one but two horse armor sets.

To no one’s surprise, Oblivion Remastered was a massive hit. Despite launching on day one for Game Pass, it was one of the best-selling games of 2025 in the United States. To say that its sales outpaced the original in a fraction of the time would be an understatement. Bethesda had seemingly found a new winning formula to print money: simply revisit its glory days.

There was just one problem: The bugs. And no, not those left intentionally, which contributed to some of the quirkiness. We’re talking about other, serious, game-breaking bugs and some performance hiccups. Many players reported many other issues – who knew that taking a dual-engine approach could create so many problems? Surely, Virtuos would address them in short order. Right?

Well, after two months and no real response, players began to grow antsy. The studio eventually released update 1.1 in July to address numerous crashes and then update 1.2 a few days later with even more fixes. The latter even added more difficulty options and settings to separately adjust player and enemy damage.

And then it abandoned the game. That’s not an exaggeration. No other updates have been released ever since. In terms of post-launch support, even Redfall lasted longer, despite a pitiful critical reception and minimal sales (per Phil Spencer himself). Ponder on that for a moment.

One year on, Oblivion Remastered still suffers from performance stutters, crashes, and an altogether uncharming level of jank. Perhaps the most egregious issue is that performance actually degrades with more playtime. That’s right – the more time you spend exploring Cyrodiil and really taking in the atmosphere, the more likely it is that performance will nosedive.

Many argue that those two updates actually made everything worse. Others believe they barely made a difference. Very few are happy with the game’s state, regardless.

You could argue that Bethesda earned whatever revenue it could and peaced out, but this is a game that continues to attract players on Game Pass. Within three months, it reached nine million overall – surely it and parent company Microsoft would want to continue support, ensuring the remaster remained the definitive way to experience Oblivion in today’s age. But no. Not even close. Recent reviews on Steam are “Mixed” with only 51 percent of the 523 users recommending it. Even Starfield has fared better, regardless of how players may feel about the game’s overall state.

Of course, there are other potential reasons why Oblivion Remastered was left to fester. Virtuos suffered several layoffs in the months after launch and may not have had the resources to continue supporting it. Maybe getting the game up and running also required significant support from Bethesda, which is plenty busy with other projects. It may also have been a matter of Microsoft not wanting to foot the bill.

But hey, don’t worry. Xbox still clearly sees the money in more remasters, hence why it’s allegedly remastering Fallout 3 (gotta give those fans of the show what they want, after all). So, to add insult to injury and rub salt in the wound further, another beloved classic may be ruined by this dual-engine approach. Nothing is confirmed, naturally, but hearing that it’s reportedly getting the Oblivion Remastered treatment doesn’t fill my heart with hope. Will the rumored remaster of Fallout: New Vegas also suffer the same fate? Is Microsoft doomed to repeat the cycle forever, wiping those tears away with fat stacks of cash?

If all that wasn’t enough, Halo: Campaign Evolved could offer another look at a potential dual-engine disaster, since it’s running on the original Halo’s legacy code while overhauling the visuals on Unreal Engine 5. Judging by the criticism from the reveal and the fact that we’ve not seen any gameplay ever since, not to mention an alleged launch in July, you have to wonder what’s going on.

Of course, all of that is still to come. Maybe we won’t witness the same problems at launch or shortly after. Benefit of the doubt, fingers crossed, and whatnot.

It’s still a shame right now because Oblivion Remastered is genuinely good. The visuals are simply incredible, and for a time, it seemed like the perfect argument against Bethesda remaining on the Creation Engine. Look what a different developer could accomplish on Unreal Engine 5 while still retaining all the classic gameplay fundamentals! And it sadly wasn’t to be.

I’ll still have the memories of venturing into deep dark caves and slaughtering all and sundry while waking up to a mysterious assassin from the Dark Brotherhood who recruits me. I’ll still remember that feeling of watching the king suddenly slain, and setting forth into this vast and beautiful world to find his heir. From battling the horrors emerging from the gates of Oblivion to wandering onto an inn that happens to be a pirate ship and fighting my way through to escape this impromptu kidnapping. From hearing the adoring fan’s annoying pestering to breaking the spell system to an absurd degree. That’s the Oblivion Remastered that I have the benefit of remembering.

Too bad that newer players will have that experience marred by a litany of technical issues that Microsoft and Bethesda couldn’t bother to fix. Maybe when Bethesda announces its next remaster, it will have an epiphany and realize, like 343 Industries did with Halo: The Master Chief Collection, that it should address this mess first. If for nothing else than a show of good faith to customers.

Then again, this is Bethesda we’re talking about. Even after the mixed reactions surrounding Fallout 4 and its DLC, it went on to release a massive disaster in Fallout 76 at launch. And yet, it still managed to get millions on board for Starfield. You can bet that it’ll have even more people ready to put down their money when The Elder Scrolls 6 is imminent or when Fallout 5 pre-orders are live. Maybe it’s just the nature of the machine and those sworn to it.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

This is largely due to how Resident Evil games tend to offer more linear and focused experiences, while Bethesda’s titles tend to be more open games with many systems working on top of each other.

“I really, really like the Resident Evil remakes and those are super cool where it was like, totally remade, but I don’t think that’s really viable for a Bethesda game to do that,” he said in an interview with KiwiTalkz. “With that many systems interacting, to try and get that to actually behave in the same way. Ugh, I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”

Purkeypile also spoke about The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, and how it was achieved by the developers making use of Unreal Engine 5 on top of the RPG’s own engine, both working in tandem. He also acknowledged that a “from scratch” remake for an RPG of such scale would be too expensive to consider.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered was released last year, and quickly became quite the hit, reaching 9 million players just a few months after its release. The title was developed by Bethesda working together with Virtuos, and was built by making use of Unreal Engine 5 to handle the visual side of things while the original Gamebryo Engine powering Oblivion took care of the gameplay logic. For more details, take a look at our review. While it is currently available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, a Nintendo Switch 2 port is also in the works. However, Bethesda hasn’t yet confirmed a solid release date aside from a general 2026 window.

In the same discussion, fellow former Bethesda developers Jonah Lobe and Bruce Nesmith discussed how they wouldn’t be too surprised if the company were to give the responsibility of developing Fallout 5 to another studio. While typically unlikely, Lobe brought up the fact that the company likely has its hands full for now with the development of The Elder Scrolls 6.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Bethesda gave Fallout 5 to a different production studio,” said Lobe. “I think that they’re doing more and more of that already, they’re bigger and bigger than ever. I feel like The Elder Scrolls 6, the expectations are already beyond the screen here, and they already have their hands full with that.”

Nesmith noted that it would also be advantageous for Bethesda to release a new entry in the Fallout franchise while Amazon’s live action adaptation is still running. “I wasn’t necessarily with you before, but when you say that, I totally agree,” he said. “Having the game come out while the show is either still running, or still very fresh, would be a huge advantage.”

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

“The game is still in active development, and I understand Bethesda is keen to ensure it’s as well polished as the surprise release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered last year,” he wrote.

It is worth noting that Bethesda’s open-world RPGs have a reputation of launching in technically questionable states before their problems are fixed with post-launch updates. We recently saw this happen with the release of Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, and even Oblivion Remastered had quite a few performance issues that are still being ironed out.

Another report from last month has indicated that Bethesda hasn’t yet decided on when it will officially unveil its Fallout 3 remaster. Industry insider NateTheHate recently noted that it is a “planned release”.

While the remaster being developed has been rumored for quite some time now, a recent report has indicated that it will be similar in scope as Oblivion Remastered. Windows Central’s Jez Corden even indicated that there are also plans to remaster Fallout: New Vegas.

Former Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith had spoken about a Fallout 3 remaster last year, noting that it would likely need a complete revamp of its gun-based combat system. Bringing up comparisons with the combat in Fallout 4, he said that similar refinements would also be necessary in the remaster.

“What did you see in Fallout 4? That will tell you what they felt was necessary to change from Fallout 3,” Nesmith said. “I know in Fallout 4 there was a lot of work done on the gun combat, because Fallout 3 is the first time they ever tried to do a shooter-style game. And, well, I think the work that was done was amazing.”

He also went on to talk about how Fallout 3‘s combat systems didn’t hold up even compared to contemporary releases. 2008 saw the release of several critically-acclaimed shooters, after all, including Gears of War 2, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and Dead Space.

“[Fallout 3 combat] didn’t hold up to shooters at the time,” Nesmith explained. “Also, it’s an RPG shooter, it’s not a run-and-gun shooter. But a lot of work was done on that for Fallout 4. So I anticipate seeing a lot of that work go into it, assuming they’re doing the same thing.”

“Oblivion wasn’t just brought up to the 2011 version of Skyrim,” he continued. “It was brought up to something that, at least on the surface, looks like it exceeds the most recent graphics update in Skyrim.”

For a hint of what the Fallout 3 remaster might end up looking like, check out our review of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered. The fantasy RPG is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. A Nintendo Switch 2 release has also been confirmed for 2026.

Currently available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, Oblivion Remastered is handled by Virtuos and Bethesda Game Studios. While retaining the Gamebryo core, its visuals have been significantly overhauled with Unreal Engine 5. The result is a gorgeous experience that retains many of the original’s quirks.

Quality-of-life changes abound for combat, progression, and more, ensuring a smoother experience. Of course, alongside the base game, you’re gaining access to all the DLC and expansions, including Knights of the Nine and The Shivering Isles. Pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition nets two additional armor and weapon sets for those who really want them.

Unfortunately, several new issues emerged on top of the remaining ones. Virtuos has released updates to address these, but judging by the recent “Mixed” reviews on Steam, there’s still work to be done. But who knows? Maybe the Switch 2 port will usher in changes and improvements. We’ll have to wait to be sure, but in the meantime, check out our review for the base experience.

Taking a closer look at software sales for the month of December, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 took the lead, with Battlefield 6 being ranked third. Other titles in the best-seller charts for the month are a mix of newer games like Donkey Kong Bananza and older titles like Grand Theft Auto 5, Minecraft and Red Dead Redemption 2.

While other console makers might have started struggling with console sales last year, Nintendo has been doing quite well with the release of the Switch 2. Piscatella had confirmed, the Switch 2 ended up being the best-selling console of the year in the US, with the country accounting for 4.4 million units. Along with this, the new console is also noted as selling faster than the original Switch from back in 2017.

As he noted, the Switch 2’s hardware sales single-handedly managed to offset industry-wide downward trends in console hardware sales. Sony’s PS5 ranked second for the period. The Switch 2 has also been described by Piscatella as being the “fastest selling video game console hardware platform” in history so far.

While things might be going well for Nintendo for the time being, research firm Niko Partners has predicted that the company will end up raising the price of the Switch 2 thanks to the worldwide memory shortages affecting manufacturing. The firm noted that, while the Switch 2 is priced competitively when compared to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo might have to bring its latest console in line with its competitors to maintain profitability.

In the meantime, Battlefield Studios has been working hard on creating and testing more content for the upcoming second season of Battlefield 6. While it hasn’t yet revealed too many details aside from its February 17 launch date, the developers provided a few hints about what kind of content we can expect when Season 2 of Battlefield 6 is kicked off.

Among the new content coming to the game is a brand new map, dubbed Contagion, that will also feature its own unique gameplay mechanics. No details have been provided about these mechanics, aside from vague hints about players needing to use equipment to interact with them, a soldier wearing a gas mask in the teaser trailer, and the fact that the map’s name implies some sort of contagious infection will be involved.

Battlefield 6 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review from back when it first came out.

2025 Top 20 Best-Selling Premium Games – U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T14:00:07.506Z

December 2025 Top 20 Best-Selling Premium Games – U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T14:00:07.505Z

Of course, the main difference is that it didn’t launch exclusively for Xbox to start. However, it’s interesting to note that the apparent playtime for about half of all PS5 players was about 15 hours. You have to wonder if performance issues and bugs got in the way.

Another notable Xbox-developed launch was Gears of War Reloaded. As an enhanced re-release of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, it reportedly sold 572,000 units on PS5. On Xbox, it managed to sell 202,000 while Steam racked up 73,000 sales. While this might seem surprising, Alinea estimates that it’s due to Game Pass cannibalizing sales, since 1.6 million players apparently accessed Reloaded through the subscription service.

There’s also the fact that Gears of War, especially the first game, has already been available on Xbox for so long. Meanwhile, this was many a PlayStation player’s first time experiencing the shooter. Whether this will motivate fans to experience Gears of War: E-Day, which is launching later this year, remains to be seen.

Along with reporting that the teaser site is not leading to a shadow drop for a new Fallout game (much less a remaster), he revealed that the remaster is coming “eventually.” Interestingly, Corden added, “as well as Fallout: New Vegas on top,” which wouldn’t be surprising given the focus of Fallout Season 2.

And while it’s unknown if one of them could be a new Fallout, there are apparently four new projects in the works at Obsidian Entertainment, “some big, some small.” He also reiterated that Fallout 5 has allegedly been greenlit, and while a teaser at an upcoming showcase isn’t out of the question, it’s got a long way to go.

Of course, this is all leading up to the next Xbox Developer_Direct, scheduled for later this month. Microsoft didn’t confirm what would be shown, simply noting that Playground Games would be present. However, Corden says it’s “highly likely” that Fable and Forza Horizon 6, alongside Gears of War: E-Day and Halo: Campaign Evolved (allegedly referred to internally as the “four horsemen) could appear.