Also, the studio claim last week's roadmap post was something they'd "been contemplating for some time"

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Bethesda / Virtuos

It's been just over a year since Oblivion Remastered got update 1.2, a patch aiming to improve its performance and fix a bunch of bugs that'd been floating around since release. Since that point, the Elder Scrolls 4 revamp's been without any major updates, despite problems persisting.

The good news, or potential good news, is that Bethesda have now confirmed that the game's Switch 2 port features "optimisations" they're hoping to bring to PC at some juncture.

Responding to a question from YouTuber MrMattyPlays about any patches or fixes are planned for the Oblivion Remastered alongside its Switch 2 release on August 11th, Bethesda noted that "the team working on remasters is focused on the Switch 2 launch, which has optimisations we hope to bring back to console/PC".

So, not a concrete declaration that a fresh PC patch is imminent, but at least some indication that further fixes could land at some point down the road. It's something. Oblivion Remastered's unpolished state on release last year and since that point, even if you could argue it wouldn't be a faithful modernising of Oblivion of all of the funky bugs and weird quirks had been ironed out, is one of the reasons I pretty much shrugged at Bethesda recently confirming remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas are in the works. Is it worth playing a remaster over the original if there's a chance you'll have to resort to old tricks just to avoid getting locked out of a key faction quest because a ring hasn't spawned properly?

Speaking of that big 'here's what we're working on' post from the other week, Bethesda told MrMattyPlays that it was emblematic of "a shift in our approach to communications that Bethesda game studios has been contemplating for some time now". So, not due solely to Xbox's recent change in leadership and pivot in strategy which has come with mass layoffs, if you choose to believe the studio.

Personally, it's the answer I'd expect them to give at this point regardless of what the truth of the situation might be. That's not to suggest doing a revelatory post like this isn't necessarily something they hadn't given thought to before Asha Sharma took the helm at their parent company, but the fact it's been rolled out right around the time of what MS execs might call a company "reset" sticks out.

Regardless, here's hoping Oblivion Remastered does get some further fixes and performance tweaks, given its recent Steam reviews right now remain mixed as a result of the various issues.