Devs lament Oblivion Remastered’s surprise release as Todd Howard eats their lunch: ‘I noticed a complete stop in game sales from about 2 pm onward on Oblivion day’

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Developing a video game, considering its complexity, stress, and intricacy, is somewhat comparable to strategizing for a war on Mars. It’s an ongoing complex strategy game with numerous participants, lacking a definitive rulebook, where successes can swiftly turn into failures, without any discernible pattern. However, it’s advisable to steer clear of launching your indie project against heavyweights like GTA 6 or other releases on a similar scale of impact.

As a gamer, I was taken aback last week when Bethesda unexpectedly announced the release of Oblivion Remastered, throwing a massive launch into an otherwise clear gaming landscape. It seems like quite a few developers must’ve felt let down by that move!

“From the perspective of indies and indie publishers, this is the problem with these sort of massive shadow drops,” said Raw Fury boss Jónas Antonsson (via GamesRadar) on X. “Everything more or [less] gets buried.” Raw Fury is the publisher of puzzle-horror game Post Trauma, which released last week on, um, April 22. That’s the same day Oblivion Remastered hit.

Antonsson points out that carefully coordinating release timings is crucial because an unexpected release like Oblivion could disrupt all plans significantly. Since we don’t have vast resources at our disposal, every move is thoughtfully planned – even down to when to launch a product, considering other releases and attempting to optimize the opportunity for gaining notice.

“Love the game that dropped but feel the pain for our team,” said Antonsson. Which, hey, seems fair to me. It’s not just Raw Fury that was blindsided by Bethesda, either. Mike Rose—dev on strategy deckbuilder Starless Abyss—put out a call for publicity on X after the game released in “the exact week that Oblivion was shadow-dropped” and noted that the coincidence had been “not fantastic for our launch.”

Developers whose games didn’t launch around the same time as Bethesda’s can’t help but feel the ripple effects when such a dominant player makes a big splash in the gaming market. For instance, Brian Bucklew of Caves of Qud admitted on Bluesky that Oblivion’s release might have led to a 10-20% drop in their daily revenue. Similarly, Francisco González, who works on adventure game Rosewater, reported seeing a complete halt in game sales starting from around 2 pm on the day of Oblivion’s release.

On previous occasions, similar events have transpired, including just a few months ago. Back in March, the rollout of Monster Hunter Wilds didn’t bring unexpected success for the developers, as they expressed disappointment over the sales figures.

It’s uncertain if such issues can be completely resolved, especially when it comes to releasing large-scale games. While announcing the release date ahead of time might help, developers often still face overwhelming workloads. For instance, the Oblivion remaster was widely anticipated before its recent release, with Bethesda’s reluctance to officially announce it causing quite a stir among fans. So, while it wasn’t entirely unexpected, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise either. This situation leaves developers under considerable pressure from companies like Bethesda.

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2025-04-29 19:05