The unexpected conversational bomb dropped by Bethesda for the lovers of physical media: the Oblivion remaster will be physically released. Advertisement for the new must-have for the inventory can be considered one of the best RPGs ever created; that’s how the official Elder Scrolls Twitter account announced it.
That split in perceptions is a reflection of the community’s reaction – it’s been very mixed, with some absolutely overjoyed at the thought of a physical release and others rightfully wary, given the issues surrounding the game’s performance and platform availability, what’s there to be debated?
The Physical Deluxe Edition, according to another tweet from that account, contained a disc version of the base game for either Xbox or PlayStation, along with a code for the digital story content and the digital deluxe stuff. It sounds rather boring as far as modern physical releases go, letting people speculate – is the full game really on this disc? Aaron (@Azwilko1997) put out this question: “Is the full game actually on the disc?” Well, honestly? We want to know the same.
The timing is a little funny. Noah (@noah_10959) said, “Should’ve did that in the first place before I bought the digital version,” and that guy had a point. Digital buyers are feeling a little burned, wondering why they did not wait.
What they’re mostly upset about, however, seems to be the performance issues. Jacob Hancock (@ShutEyedBandit) asked, “Is Virtuos (which is the studio that did the remaster) going to finally address performance issues that have been present since launch even after Patch 1.2?” – and he’s not alone; many comments bring up the stuttering issues that apparently remain unresolved. POLISHINSERT (@POLISHINSERT) flat out asked, ‘Did u fix the stutering yet?’ while another upset one asked: ‘Have y’all patched the horrible fucking performance or do y’all not care’ – oof.
Then there’s the whole PC thing. A ton of gamers are asking where the PC physical version is, with Jan Fortuna (@JannFortuna) saying, “So…. No PC? What an actual?” and DebatableButton (@DebatableButton) saying simply, “No PC, no sale.” Jacob Andersen (@SirTakahu) pointed out: “some companies seem to not wanna do PC versions of physical editions unless it’s a collectors edition.” He would be willing to buy the physical version just to gift the key to a friend, even though he already owns the digital version.
Now, some of those are legitimate complaints, though: Some folks are genuinely excited. Izzy (@RatQueenEXE) was all hyped up: ‘FINALLYYYYY!!!! THANK YOU FOR REMEMBERING PHYSICAL MEDIA IS THE CORRECT WAY TO GO!!! <33’ – all caps. Geordie Joe (@GJ_1892) also stated, “Physical media making a comeback,” which may well be true, given the current state of gaming. And masterbkb (@masterbkb034) intends to secure his pre-order alongside his Elder Scrolls collection.
One of those regional concerns is a big one: HeinoDerZony (@HeinoDerZony) wanted to know about the language options, wanting to finally get French, German, and other voice-overs like in the original, calling it ‘another big slap in the Face of your Fans’ if they don’t.
Following on from those are some more strange requests but rather charming ones: cakejumper (@Itscakejumper) begged for “a nice map to put on the wall i need a big fold out fancy map of cyrodiil,” which, honestly? Same. We want the map.
The timing of this physical release is a little weird given the fact that the remaster has been out there for a while now; and performance issues apparently still exist. It’s almost like they are trying to capture a second wave of sales from the physical collectors without actually addressing the core problems complaining early adopters have been at since launch.
For an enthusiast of physical media, though, and an Oblivion die-hard-this is pretty darn cool news. That game is fantastic – Sean McClure (@SeanMcC91092139) said it was “so good” and suggested the same team should probably “graphically overhaul Skyrim” which… yeah, that would be pretty amazing actually.
So what is to be made of this? If you’re a physical collector and don’t mind performance issues, this might be worth it. If you want all the bugs to be ironed, you might hold off a bit. Either way, it’s interesting to see Bethesda still supporting this remaster with new physical editions, even if the community response has been… complicated, to say the least.
This announcement for a physical edition shows there’s still a clear demand for disc-based games, even if that’s broken and more digital these days. It further underlines the importance of developers addressing performance issues and platform availability if they hope to keep their player base delighted. For now, Oblivion fans have another arrow in their quiver – even if that comes with some lingering questions about the actual game experience.
