Oblivion Remastered: Technical Difficulties Plague Console Performance Despite Strong Sales
Oblivion Remastered, the highly anticipated revamp of the classic RPG, has launched to both acclaim and disappointment. While sales figures paint a rosy picture, with the game quickly becoming one of the best-selling titles of 2025, technical issues are casting a long shadow over the experience, particularly on consoles.
Digital Foundry recently delved into the console performance of Oblivion Remastered, revealing a litany of problems across all platforms. Stuttering, frame-rate drops, and outright crashes are impacting players on PS5, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. These issues aren't merely minor annoyances; they progressively worsen with longer play sessions, suggesting a potential memory leak within the game's engine.
The PS5 Pro offers a resolution boost in both performance and quality modes, but the underlying performance issues remain. While the Pro can achieve higher resolutions, such as a near-native 4K in quality mode, it's still susceptible to the same frame-rate drops and traversal hitches as the base PS5 and Xbox Series X.
According to initial reports, a hotfix improved Series X's 60fps performance. However, further testing suggests the hotfix only benefitted from a fresh boot-up of a ready-made save, proving the main issue isn't fixed, despite the update. After continuous hours on the clock, all consoles see performance progressively getting worse, leading to consoles crashing back to the system front-end. All of this points to a memory management issue.
Adding to the controversy, Oblivion Remastered revisits the notorious village of Hackdirt, a location that has haunted players for years with its unsettling atmosphere and dark secrets. One writer recounts their return: "Every person I speak to expresses a similar sentiment, but I can't let their hostility get to me. I have a job to do, and I'm not leaving until it's done. Even when I know what's to come this time around, the atmosphere of this small village still makes a chill run down my spine, and the steady build up to uncovering the sinister secrets it hides is just as effective as it ever was."
Despite the technical hurdles, Oblivion Remastered has achieved impressive sales figures, even surpassing expectations. It's currently the third-best-selling game of 2025 in the US, based on dollar sales, and was the best-selling game for the week ending April 26th. This is particularly noteworthy considering the game's availability on Xbox Game Pass, where subscribers can play at no additional cost.
The question now is whether Virtuos, is listening to the the technical QA process, and will address the game's stability and memory management issues with a timely patch. Players are eager to experience the classic RPG without being hampered by these technical woes.
Have you experienced any of these technical issues in Oblivion Remastered? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!
