The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition (2009) News

A former developer on massive Elder Scrolls mod project Skyblivion who called its current 2025 release goal "unachievable" has suggested March 2026 as a "fitting" release window for the task of remaking Oblivion in Skyrim's engine.

Around the time of the mod's most recent showcase, ex-Skyblivion level and world designer Dee Keyes put out a tweet accusing its project lead and implementation lead of rushing the mod out the door to meet a 2025 release goal that Keyes dubbed "pointless and unachievable". The modder also accused the pair of mismanaging the project by not keeping up communication between leads and other developers in terms of key decisions. Keyes' claims and very public split from the Skyblivion team naturally led to questions being asked of the remaining Skyblivion devs, with the mod's comms lead telling fans: "Our aim is that it will be by the end of the year, if we as a team decide that it isn't we will be sure to share that."

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Update: Developer Dee Keyes has confirmed to RPS that they're no longer part of the Skyblivion team.

"My departure and choice to write my statement came when I'd discovered that another one of our longtime volunteers, KettleWitch, had left over the same issues," they continued. They claim KettleWitch's effort to voice concerns about the communication on the project and the team's ability to hit the announced release date goal was met with "no real concern" and that when the modder subsequently left the Skyblivion team "no announcement was made to the team and we weren't even made aware that one of our old guard had left."

"This was the push for me to finally leave since it seemed like any attempt for me to do the same would just be met with the same apathy," Keyes said. "I know to [Skyblivion project lead] Rebelzize this has come out of nowhere, but there were more than enough warning signs that were ignored. If our leaving shocks them into listening to the rest of the developers' feelings then some good will have come from it.

"I'd also like to stress [that] my desire for the project delaying isn't so that we can keep adding feature creeps, but just to get the minimum viable product done without breaking our backs over it. It's a sad day in the industry when even passion projects are rushed and induce crunch."

Original story continues below:

A long-standing member of unofficial Oblivion remake Skyblivion's development team has claimed the project is being "rushed out the door", and that its previously stated 2025 release goal is "pointless and unachievable".

These claims were made by modder Dee Keyes in a Twitter post put up over the same weekend that the Skyrim mod showed off its opening fifteen minutes as part of Elder Scrolls modding showcase Creation Mod Con. Keyes is currently listed as a world designer on the team page of Skyblivion's website, having previously served as level design department lead, and has appeared in the likes of this dev diary posted to project lead Kyle 'Rebelzize' Rebel's YouTube channel in 2021.

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Watch out, there's a goblin over there! Have you dispatched him with a deceased Blade's rusty blade? Good, we can now keep trekking through the revamped Imperial sewers dungeon that unofficial Oblivion remake Skyblivion's devs have just shown off.

The massive Skyrim mod's getting ever closer to the release its creators have pencilled in for later this year. Despite that looming, they've not opted to skip what's become an annual cameo at fan-run Skyrim modding showcase Creation Mod Con, alongside a bunch of other in-the-works Elder Scrolls remake projects and add-ons.

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August 2025 now has as many Skyblivion developer diaries as there are modern The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion reimaginings: two, which in both cases remains a weirdly high number. But while last week’s Finishing Skyblivion focused on one volunteer’s attempts at getting the ambitious Cyrodiil-in-Skyrim mod over the line, this other vid makes a very specific pitch to those whose interest may have been diverted by Bethesda’s official Oblivion Remastered, showcasing how Skyblivion looks to more aggressively expand and rework the original RPG.

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With unofficial Oblivion remake Skyblivion aiming to arrive this year, one of its developers has kicked off a new dev diary series documenting the work they've been doing to get the massive Skyrim mod ready to emerge through the release gates.

While the folks behind Skyblivion certainly haven't been shy when it comes to regularly showing off their progress, it's always cool to see more of the blood, sweat, and tears that's going into finally getting such a gargantuan undertaking into players' hands. Then again, maybe I'm just partial to trippy glimpses at Uriel Septim's detached head floating in the development void.

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