Back in September 2023, a major leak sprouted from the FTC v Microsoft court case, with a plethora of confidential documents hitting the internet. One such document detailed a handful of projects that Bethesda was working on before it was acquired by Microsoft. On that list were aFallout 3remaster slated for 2024, aDoomprequel slated for 2023, and anElder Scrolls 4: Oblivionremaster slated for 2022. Though it’s been years since these projects allegedly began development, many fans are holding out hope that anElder Scrolls 4: Oblivionremaster is still in the works, with aDoomprequel (Doom: The Dark Ages) finally set to release this May.
Plenty of fuel has also been added to the fire in the last few months, with many industry insiders claiming that anElder Scrolls 4: Oblivionremaster/remake is real and still in development. Though some believed it was going to appear duringXbox’s Developer Directlast month, there’s still hope thatOblivioncould rear its head during Xbox’s summer showcase. But while anOblivionremake/remaster could be great, Bethesda might want to dig a bit deeper.
Bethesda Should Remake The Elder Scrolls From The Beginning
Remakes of The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Daggerfall Would Offer The Largest Sandbox in Series History
Originally released in 1994 and 1996 respectively,The Elder Scrolls: ArenaandThe Elder Scrolls: Daggerfallare technically the largest games in the franchise.Arenalets players explorethe entire continent of Tamriel, and thoughDaggerfallpairs things back to just two provinces (High Rock and Hammerfell), it still contains 15,000 cities, towns, and dungeons.
Of course, for this to be possible in the 1990s, Bethesda had to make use of cutting-edge procedural generation for most of the game’s quests and dungeons. It would be amazing to see Bethesda remake these giganticElder Scrollsgames usingmodern procedural generation tech, something that would hopefully fix the original games' tendency to give players incompletable questlines or nonsensical dungeon layouts.
A Remake of The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Would Be Perfectly Timed
In the last decade or so,The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowindhas become the fan-favorite entry, mostly due to its immersive sim-like qualities. For instance, players don’t really receive quest markers inMorrowind, they’re instead asked to listen to NPCs, follow their instructions, and complete the objective how they see fit. This high level of immersion and player-freedom is something many fans wantThe Elder Scrollsto return to, and Bethesda could deliver just that withaMorrowindremake.
AMorrowindremake would also come at the perfect time.Indiana Jones and the Great Circlehas just introducedthe immersive sim genreto a wealth of new players, meaning thatMorrowindnewcomers would be much more likely to give the game’s more “demanding” nature a fair chance. Though the talented modding community has already done a great job of givingMorrowinda modern overhaul in various departments, it might still be worthwhile to see a fully-fledged, high-budget remake from Bethesda itself, though it would need to be careful not to remove any of the immersive elements that made the original so beloved.
