Credit where it's due: Bethesda is being admirably normal by letting modders carry on with their competing Oblivion remaster
If you're reading this, I'm sure I don't need to explain to you that modding and PC gaming go hand in hand. Likewise, I'm sure I don't need to explain that the lively culture of games modding has provoked an equally lively culture of IP litigation. Every year, we publish countless stories about modders finding themselves on the receiving end of DMCA takedowns from territorial licenseholders, even when the vast majority of those modders—like the creator of last month's embattled Baldur's Village mod—aren't charging a penny.
It's noteworthy, then, that Bethesda is being remarkably chill about Oblivion Remastered.
If you and I were major Microsoft shareholders, it's easy to imagine a logic that might lead us to object to projects like Skyblivion, the massive mod-in-progress aiming to recreate Oblivion in Skyrim's more recent engine that's planned to release this year. We're releasing our own refreshed Oblivion, you and I. If people don't want to spend the $50, or if they're joining the BDS movement's boycott of Microsoft gaming products in support of Palestine, they can just wait for someone else's Nublivion that they can get for free. We can't make money off free!
Usually, working on a substantial revival mod in any proximity to a franchise launch is a DMCA death sentence.
And then we'd probably slam our fists on the conference room table and demand our esteemed colleagues consider the quarterly projections, or whatever it is you do when you're in a fit of capital. Yet despite whatever fractional peril the mod might represent to shareholder profits, Skyblivion hasn't been forced to close up shop. Instead, Bethesda rewarded the entire Skyblivion team with free Oblivion Remastered keys.
It's a rare act of benevolence in a business where other publishers have such itchy trigger fingers. Usually, working on a substantial revival mod in any proximity to a franchise launch is a DMCA death sentence.
Last year, Activision axed the substantial H2M Modern Warfare 2 mod one day before its release out of fear that it might peel players away from contributing to its yearly quintillions—give or take—of Call of Duty revenue. In August 2020, MGM forced a fan-made GoldenEye remake offline. It wasn't shocking, but it became even less so when three months later IO Interactive announced Project 007 three months later. Whether that was a bullet point in negotiations leading up to Amazon's March 2021 acquisition of MGM, we can only guess.
Take Two launched a particularly intensive mod bloodbath throughout 2021, hunting conversion mods, remakes, and overhauls—some of which were well over a decade old—so it could clear the board for its GTA Trilogy reveal. But hey, at least the remastered trilogy was good when it came out, right?
It was not. And yet that culling is still somehow less maddening than Sony's continued purge of Bloodborne-related material from PCs, despite its apparent conviction that it would rather be destroyed than attempt to sell Bloodborne on a computer.
ZeniMax, Bethesda's parent-company-within-a-parent-company, hasn't always been a friendly comrade with its modder fanbase. In 2019, ZeniMax issued a cease and desist order to the creator of the Doom Remake 4 mod, an attempt to modernize the original Doom with current day graphics and gameplay standards. Oh, and it apparently doesn't like when Doomguy kills Margaret Thatcher.
In other words, it's not exactly benevolence: It's canny business practice.
So what's the deal? Why hasn't Bethesda tried to scour Skyblivion off the face of the earth? Well, it might share a philosophy with Larian CEO Swen Vincke, who spoke out against Wizards of the Coast for its now-retracted takedown of the BG3 Stardew Valley mod.
"Free quality fan mods highlighting your characters in other game genres are proof your work resonates and a unique form of word of mouth," Vincke said on X. "Imho they shouldn't be treated like commercial ventures that infringe on your property."
In other words, it's not exactly benevolence: It's canny business practice. If modders get people to fall in love with your games deeply enough that they'll want to buy the next one, that's free real estate.