Highlights
- The recent 20-minute gameplay video from the Skyblivion mod project showcases impressive environments, providing fans with a glimpse of what they can expect from the finished experience.
- Despite the long development time, the Skyblivion mod is not expected to release until 2025, so fans will have to wait patiently for its completion.
- In the meantime, the active Skyrim modding community continues to produce new content, offering fans plenty to enjoy while waiting for the release of Skyblivion and The Elder Scrolls VI.
As part of 2023's Creation Mod Con, a yearly showcase of exceptional work in the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim modding community, developers of the expansive Skyblivion project have released a brand new 20-minute gameplay video showing off the current state of the mod. Skyblivion has been in development for over a decade, with the ambitious goal of completely remaking Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in the Skyrim engine.
Soon after the launch of Skyrim in November 2011, Bethesda made the decision to release the Creation Kit, a set of modding tools that would allow a robust modding community to form around the game, maintaining its relevance and popularity for over a decade after its release. That same community is still producing incredible Skyrim mods for fans to try even to this day, ranging from silly gimmicks and simple quality of life features to massive, ambitious expansions and overhauls like the Skyblivion remake project.
While the mod is still not expected to release until 2025, the recent 2023 Creation Mod Con featured 20 minutes of brand-new gameplay footage from Skyblivion, showcasing a full playthrough of one of Oblivion's many memorable sidequests, Mazoga the Orc. The video is accompanied by a voiceover from one of the mod's developers describing various features on display and offering some insights into the team's design strategy. It ends with a call for further volunteers to join the development team to help them finish the project, as well as reaffirming the previously announced release window for Skyblivion.
Playing through the Mazoga the Orc side quest allowed the mod developers to show off several distinct environments within the game, including the grand city of Leyawiin, the foggy marsh of Blackwood, and an ancient Ayleid ruin. This video is a far more compact showcase than some previously released Skyblivion gameplay footage, offering a much closer look at a specific, polished section of the game that can give fans a sense of what to expect from the finished experience.
While this gameplay footage offers an exciting glimpse of what is to come, fans still have about two years of waiting ahead of them before Skyblivion could be ready to enjoy. Sadly, there is likely to be an even longer wait before The Elder Scrolls VI arrives, as that title was confirmed to still be in its preproduction phase as of 2022. Fortunately for fans, the robust and active Skyrim modding community is still consistently releasing new content for the classic RPG, so there is plenty to enjoy until the next big project is released.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.