UE5 Oblivion Remastered from Virtuos: A complete timeline of major leaks and details

Word of an Unreal Engine 5 Oblivion remaster has been floating around on the internet for a while now. Despite no official acknowledgment from Microsoft, Bethesda, or any other concerned parties, multiple leaks and rumors hinted that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was indeed a real project outsourced to Virtuos Paris/Shanghai.

That all changed, of course, when Bethesda finally elected to go public with it in a very cryptic teaser. At the time of writing, we're still waiting for the Oblivion Remastered reveal trailer (and possibly an outright release for the game).

In this deep dive, we'll attempt to construct a complete timeline of all the leaks and sources on the Unreal Engine 5 Oblivion remake. Not all can be traced back to verifiable sources, and some of the primary sources have been removed—so take the finer details with a grain of salt.

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Everything we know about Virtuos Studio's rumored UE5 Oblivion remake so far

Oblivion cover image accidentally leaked from Virtuos Studio's website (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

At a glance, here's what we know about the UE5 Oblivion remake as of this writing:

• Developed by Virtuos Paris.
• Projected for a most likely 2025 release date.
• However, given that 2026 is Oblivion's 20th anniversary, that also presents a great occasion.
• Will incorporate Unreal Engine 5 for visuals.
• Whether gameplay will remain the same or be modernized is an unknown territory, with a recent report claiming it will be polished to fit modern gaming standards.

And now, here are all the sources of leaks and major scoops on this unannounced project:

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July 2023: Leak on GamingLeaksAndRumours

The post has since been removed (Image via Reddit)

The first-ever news about the alleged Oblivion remake project was a leak on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, posted by someone who claimed to be an ex-employee from Virtuos Paris. The post was removed shortly afterward, but screenshots of it remain on the internet. Here's a boiled-down version of what this leaker claimed:

• The Oblivion remaster/remake project, codenamed "Altar", is under development at Virtuos.
• This will be a visual remaster using a "pairing system" between code and physics from Gamebryo (Oblviion's original engine) and tech from Unreal Engine 5, similar to Shadow of the Colossus.
• It is being developed in Virtuos Paris, with some help from the Black Shamrock art team.
• Depending on whether it is a "remaster or remake", it will release in 2024 or 2025.

It should be noted that the leaker also confirmed the existence of Project Cobra, an MGS3 remake that has since been officially confirmed to be under Virtuos' belt, and Virtuos' role in New World expansion, likely hinting at New World Aeternum.

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September 2023: Microsoft vs FTC leaked docket

A lot of games on this document are already out (Image via Reddit)

The next piece of the puzzle is the biggest one in terms of legitimacy: an official document leaked during the Microsoft vs FTC lawsuit. Microsoft had accidentally uploaded an unredacted version of their documents to the government website, which had made these sensitive files public access.

Among other big scoops, a 2020 five-year docket of Bethesda's release schedule was also leaked. Per these plans, an Oblivion Remaster was slated for 2022, effectively confirming that the concept was greenlit by Microsoft-ZeniMax as early as 2020. Given the two to three-year lag between the projected schedule and real release dates, this puts the "Oblivion Remaster" in line for a 2025 or 2026 release.

There have been no major leaks or developments about the UE5 Oblivion remake throughout 2024 (at least according to our research).

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January 2025: Virtuos employee LinkedIn entry

Oleksii Moskovchenko, Technical Art Director at Virtuos Shanghai, may have accidentally leaked further hints on the UE5 Oblivion remake on their LinkedIn post.

As spotted by Timur222 on X, their career timeline as Technical Art Director included an "unannounced UE5 PS5/XSX/PC remake" at some point before January 6, 2025. The LinkedIn profile has since edited out this entry (assuming the screenshot was legitimate).

This could potentially be the Oblivion UE5 remake; however, considering the location points out Virtuos Shanghai and not Paris, this could imply some further possibilities.

The first is that Virtuos Shanghai has now joined forces in the project to accelerate its progress. The second and less likely possibility is that Virtuos is now also involved in helping out with the (also unannounced and unconfirmed) Fallout 3 remaster project.

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January 2025: Former Virtuos employee's personal site (per MP1st report)

A report from MP1st claims that the game will be a proper remake modernizing many facades of gameplay. The news claims to have spotted a former Virtuos employee's personal site or webspace, whose name cannot be disclosed for privacy reasons.

According to this report, Oblivion will be "fully remade" on this project, which includes the modernization of some aspects of the game. Original systems that were considered to be "boring" and "frustrating" will be redesigned. Specifically, the article pin-points Stamina, Sneak, Blocking, Archery, Hit Reaction, and HUD.

Given that Oblivion is almost 20 years old at this point, it would make sense that the ponderous design of some of Oblivion's skills can certainly use some refurbishing to be fun in 2025 and beyond.

Since there have still not been any official announcements in (up to) five years of the Oblivion Remake project being greenlit, numerous leakers including Jez Corden predicted that the 2025 Xbox Developer Direct would be the occasion.

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March 2025: VGC Insider and NatetheHate

In March 2025, known Xbox and Nintendo leaker NateTheHate said that the Oblviion remake originally had a June release target, but it will be "sooner" than that. A VGC report corroborated the thoery, with an even bolder prediction:

"...sources have told VGC it could arrive as soon as next month (April 2025)."

Both of these are, of course, unreliable insider information. It would be quite odd for the Oblivion remake to be released in Q2 2025, as Zenimax-Studio had the perfect opportunity to break the ice during the Xbox Developers Direct in January if this was on the cards. The closest game convention is the Nintendo Direct, which is no place to announce the surprise release of a UE5 game.

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April 2025: Leaked promotional images and Search Engine indexing

A page for Oblivion Remastered may have been indexed under Virtuos' website recently (Image via Microsoft Bing)

Several leakers, including prominent ones like Jeff Grubb, have said that the Oblivion Remake has a chance to be shadow-dropped in April 2025. This has been pin-pointed to the third week of April (April 21-27) at the time of writing.

A more insightful leak happened due to a possible oversight on the Virtuos studios website, where several promotional images were extracted. These were revealed in a post on the Gaming Leaks and Rumors subreddit yet again. At the time of writing, these images are still up on an imgur album.

Crucially, two of these images suggest that there will be a separate Deluxe Edition for "Oblivion Remastered" from Virtuos. This implies a similar DLC-bundling model as the original Oblivion, which also puts all of its many micro-downloadable content packs and big expansions (Knights of The Nine and Shivering Isles) into a complete Deluxe Edition.

Even more recently, a Bing search filtering only Virtuos Studios website reveals that an Oblivion Remastered page may have been indexed recently, under a 'success stories' subdomain. The pages themselves are inaccessible and return a 404 error, though.

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April 21, 2025: Bethesda finally reveals TES IV: Oblivion Remastered

And now here we are. After nearly two years of speculations, trepidations, and back-and-forth between Oblivion remake deniers and hopeful fans, it's finally revealed in all its glory. On April 21, 2025, Bethesda went public about it.

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There's not really much more to write — this article is now an outdated relic of the Oblivion remake leak saga. Meanwhile, an Oblivion remake we that's yet to release is the community project, Skyblivion, which has so far stuck to the promise of a 2025 release.