The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered took everyone by surprise when it was first announced – well, aside from those constantly online – especially considering it was shadow dropped. However, that didn’t stop it from reaching number one in the charts and having a staggeringly high player count for any game, let alone a single-player title. You would expect, then, of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people playing Oblivion Remastered, that at least the majority of them would have beaten the game’s campaign. Right?

Well, as it happens, not that many people have actually beaten Oblivion Remastered, something that shocks us all. This is despite Oblivion Remastered’s many changes blowing many away, especially those who had played it all the way back in 2006. It is also despite the fact that a lot of people who have never played it before likely picked it up for the first time. While certainly interesting, I believe there is a very good reason, or two, behind why no one has beaten Oblivion Remastered, and frankly, it doesn’t bode well for a potential Fallout 3 remaster.

Only 7% Of People Have Finished Oblivion Remastered

So Few Have Beaten The Campaign

Earlier this week, it transpired that a measly 3% of people had completed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, despite it being one of the most successful remasters of all time. That’s a very disappointing figure for a number of reasons, but largely because it means either no one has bothered to actually beat the campaign because they’re too busy exploring, or they’ve just dropped the game entirely. Either way, it doesn’t speak to the quality of Oblivion Remastered’s narrative or storytelling chops.

That figure has increased since those initial reports, with, as of the time of writing, TrueAchievements stating that 7% of players have completed the Champion of Cyrodiil achievement, which you get for beating the main story. Even so, what makes this figure surprising, at least in my opinion, is that Oblivion Remastered isn’t hard in the slightest. Completing the main story should only take players around 16 hours, according to How Long To Beat, and can be done even quicker in my experience. Even with getting distracted by the open world, finishing the main story shouldn’t take long.

Of course, by all accounts, Oblivion Remastered is a masterpiece, with many praising its numerous improvements and the great qualities it still holds, even nearly two decades later. So, there must be another reason why no one has bothered to complete the main story. I doubt it’s the narrative’s quality, as while it may not be the most inspired story of all time, at the very least, Elder Scrolls fans will get a kick out of it, and newcomers will have never experienced it before. I think there is far more to this low completion rate than meets the eye.

Oblivion Remastered Being On Game Pass May Have Hurt It

People Just Try When They Don’t Buy

Custom Image by: Bruno Yonezawa

One of the most obvious reasons for the lack of people completing Oblivion Remastered’s main story is the Xbox Game Pass effect. Much like any streaming service, it is very easy to start playing a game on Xbox Game Pass and never finish it. That’s because, unlike buying a boxed or digital product at full price, you have no financial incentive or motivation to continue it. You’ve also likely got choice paralysis thanks to the overwhelming number of great Xbox Game Pass games coming to the service every month.

So, when it comes to a game like Oblivion Remastered, which is huge and filled with a variety of content, it isn’t hard to imagine people trying it for a few hours before stopping and playing something else, potentially with the intention of coming back to it later. It doesn’t help that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launched practically alongside it on Game Pass, and that had generated perhaps even more buzz than Oblivion Remastered once the novelty of the shadow drop wore off. Two other RPGs, Atomfall and Avowed, had also been added to the service in the months prior.

However, beyond the Xbox Game Pass effect, I believe Oblivion Remastered’s low completion rate also has to do with the fact that, much like other remasters, the novelty wears off quickly. Oblivion Remastered’s major flaw is that, while certainly tweaking minor aspects of the gameplay, it does little to add substantially to the experience. That’s fine, especially considering it isn’t a remake, but it does mean that a lot of people will have picked up the game to see how much has changed, and once they get a taste for it, they drop it in favor of something new.

It is hard to sustain interest in something you’ve played hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Replaying a game can be a lot of fun, especially when it has shiny new visuals, but unless you’ve got nothing else to do and you’re 100% committed to that experience, there is little incentive to do so to completion. That won’t be true of everyone, of course, and some people may not have completed the story yet because Oblivion really is that massive, but I do think a general lack of interest in an experience you’ve played repeatedly years before doesn’t really help.

Oblivion Remastered’s Completion Rate Could Hurt A Fallout 3 Remaster

People May Feel Like The Novelty Has Worn Off

It is this latter point that has me worried about the potential Fallout 3 remaster on the horizon. While not a guarantee, especially if Oblivion Remastered’s overall sales – excluding player counts on Game Pass – do badly, it is likely that Bethesda will look to remaster its vast back catalog as it has done with Skyrim for over a decade by this point. However, I wonder if a general lack of enthusiasm for Oblivion’s main story could lead to people realizing that fancy visuals and minor gameplay tweaks aren’t enough to warrant paying $60 for a game they’ve played to death.

That’s not to say that a Fallout 3 remaster won’t be as incredible as Oblivion Remastered, but rather that people may not be as enthused a second time now that the novelty of seeing an old Bethesda game in Unreal Engine 5 has worn off. I realized almost immediately after buying Oblivion Remastered on day one that shiny new visuals could never account for my familiarity with the core, unchanged experience. It may just be me, but even despite my love for Fallout 3 being as great as my love for Oblivion, I’m doubtful I’ll make the same mistake twice.

There is value in remasters as they both help preserve an old game on modern hardware while also introducing a new wave of people to the core experience. However, Oblivion Remastered never felt like just a remaster, and, as a result, was more expensive as a result. Should Fallout 3 also cost $60 or even $80, thanks to being made from the ground up in UE5, that could pose a problem. I’m certain that the Fallout 3 remaster will be incredible. I just suspect it may perform worse financially on account of so few people bothering to finish Oblivion Remastered.