Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion leaked release time (and whether you can play early with New Zealand trick)

The rumored Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered game might be coming sooner rather than later. Various screenshots of the game were posted on the developers' website for this remaster, Virtuos, but they have been seemingly removed and sent back to oblivion. However, since most people expect publisher Bethesda to shadow drop this game and release it suddenly out of obscurity, many Oblivion aficionados wonder whether the famous New Zealand trick can be used to to play this before the rest of the world does.

This article will explain whether you can use the New Zealand trick to play Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remaster early.

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The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion leaked release time: What we know so far

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered could likely be remastered by Virtuos (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

According to various posts on Reddit and X, it seems that The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered release date is April 21, 2025, at 12 PM ET. As such, it seems like Bethesda has decided to shadow drop this game out of nowhere. However, this information stems from posts claiming that the game’s App ID has cropped up in the Steam database, along with many people being able to see it on their Game Pass library. Bethesda has made no official confirmation so far.

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What is the “New Zealand trick” to play games early?

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered could feature upgraded graphics rendered in UE5 (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

For the uninitiated, the New Zealand trick for playing games early is a pretty old trick that lets you play new games before the rest of the world. This trick mostly works since New Zealand is the country that reaches midnight first and starts a new day. As such, players from this country get to access the game first before other countries get to do so.

To do so, you must change your time and date settings on your console or PC to New Zealand. After doing so, online game stores (like Steam, Xbox Store, and the PlayStation Store) will believe you are in New Zealand and will let you play a new game as soon as it launches, which typically happens at midnight. Since this country starts a new day first, you will technically get a chance to play it before it officially releases at your location.

However, this trick only works for games that have a global release date. Many new games have region-locked releases (especially online games), which makes this trick useless unless New Zealand is one of the countries getting an early release.

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Can you play The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered early using the New Zealand trick?

The answer to this question so far is no, you can’t play The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered early using the New Zealand trick. This is because this remaster doesn't have an official release date yet, considering that only screenshots of it were leaked. Moreover, since Bethesda plans to shadow drop (revealing and releasing simultaneously) this title, it will be difficult to do so without having prior knowledge of the official release date.

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For more related articles, check out:

• The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake rumored to be releasing in 2025
• UE5 Oblivion Remake: A complete timeline of major leaks and details