The development of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion began in 2002, immediately after its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, was published. Rumors of a sequel to Morrowind started circulating in June 2004; the sequel's title was identified on September 10, 2004, the date of its official announcement. Oblivion was developed by Bethesda Game Studios, and the initial Xbox 360 and personal computer (PC) releases were co-published by Bethesda Softworks and Take-Two Interactive's subsidiary, 2K Games. According to interviews with Bethesda staff, the publisher-developer relationship—one of the few independent relations in the industry—worked well, and Bethesda was not subject to excessive corporate guidance. Initially scheduled for a November 22, 2005, release, in tandem with the Xbox 360's launch, Oblivion was delayed to a March 21, 2006, release for Windows PCs and the Xbox 360.
Developers working on Oblivion focused on providing a tighter storyline, with fewer filler quests and more developed characters. The developers sought to make information in the game world more accessible to players, making the game easier to pick up and play. Oblivion features improved AI (which Bethesda calls Radiant AI), improved physics courtesy of the Havok physics engine, and impressive graphics, taking advantage of advanced lighting and shader routines like high-dynamic-range rendering (HDR) and specular mapping. Bethesda developed and implemented procedural content creation tools in the creation of Oblivion terrain, leading to landscapes that are more complex and realistic than those of past titles, with less of a drain on Bethesda's staff.
A PlayStation 3 version of Oblivion was released on March 20, 2007, in North America, and April 27, 2007, in Europe, following delays similar to those for the Xbox 360 release. The PlayStation 3 release was touted for its improvement over the graphics of the PC and Xbox 360 versions, although some of the improved shader routines optimized for the PlayStation 3 release were set to be ported over to the other releases through patches. A plan to distribute content through downloads paid by micropayment was initially met with criticism by customers due to its alleged low value, but later releases—at a reduced price, and with more content—proved more popular.
Business
Rumors and official announcements The first rumors of another Elder Scrolls release after The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind began to circulate in June 2004, following Bethesda's posting of an e-mail searching for new staff. The new staff members were to participate in a team that would push "the bleeding-edge of RPG development for the PC and future-generation consoles". For those considering the job, the e-mail suggested that "knowledge of ... The Elder Scrolls [is] a plus". At the time, a member of Bethesda's staff downplayed the importance of the last comment, noting that Bethesda would "obviously" prefer applicants familiar with the company's products. Rumors were confirmed on July 12, 2004, when it was announced that Fallout 3 and the next Elder Scrolls title would be published by Bethesda and produced by Todd Howard. The title of the release was listed on September 10, 2004, when Bethesda officially announced the identity of the game in question: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, followed by a feature in the October 2004 issue of Game Informer. At the time of the announcement, Bethesda had been working on Oblivion for two years (since 2002), just as Bethesda was completing work on Morrowind.
Release delays Although preliminary reports from Reuters suggested an Oblivion release in tandem with the launch of the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005, and the original announcement of the game set a release date of Winter 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced, during a conference call with analysts on October 31, 2005, that Oblivion release was to be delayed until the second quarter of Take-Two's fiscal year. The new schedule would put the release between February and April 2006. The delay surprised many, especially online retailers, who had begun accepting pre-orders for consoles bundled with Oblivion. News of the delay came at a time following a burst of bad news from the company, including a 60% drop in expected earnings per share, the ongoing Hot Coffee minigame controversy, worse than average sales for the company's flagship Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, sudden drops in share prices, and delays for other company products.
Most commentators blamed Take-Two's corporate governance; one analyst stated that the company's troubles were more "company-specific than market-driven", and another declared company CEO Paul Eibeler to be the "worst CEO of 2005", pointing to "setbacks on the rollouts of newer games" as evidence of his failure. Pete Hines, Vice President of PR and Marketing for Bethesda, and Todd Howard, executive producer for the game, gave an update about the delay on the weekend of November 6, 2005. They planned to provide updates every subsequent weekend until the game's release. A commentator from Joystiq complained of the vagueness of the updates: "they don't get any more specific than to say, 'There is work that still needs to be done'. In fact, they say this three times just to make sure we know how hard they are working ... While it's nice to see the development team taking time out to update the fans, if the announcements continue to be as vague as this one, I'd rather just see them spend the extra time on the actual game."
Product showings
On May 16, 2005, Bethesda announced that they would be releasing Oblivion on Microsoft's Xbox 360 and that the game's public debut would come at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on May 18, 2005. The version shown at E3 was substantially finished; most of the content was already in the game, lacking only the polish that the final months of development would bring. The game's world, for example, had already been fully constructed but still needed to undergo a "clutter pass", wherein minor game items—"books, weapons, and thousands of forks and plates"—are dropped into the game world.
Howard himself never took to the show. "It's like a beauty pageant", he told one reporter. "I have 20 minutes to give you a presentation on our games that by their nature are hard to demo in that time period, and then the person is going to check their watch and walk out and go see someone else's demo." Hines aimed to play against the standard convention at the show, avoiding the "noise and lights and heat and masses" of the show floor by retiring to a mini-theater—with air-conditioning, comfortable seating, and dim lighting—where attendees could comfortably watch. Howard agreed with the choice: "We've always taken sort of the meeting room approach. We don't have loud crazy booths."
During Microsoft's E3 pre-show conference, a ten-second preview of Oblivion was shown amid demo reels for other games. The preview consisted of a series of brief second-long shots of the game. Later on, during E3 proper, Bethesda showed a longer 25-minute demo that showcased further clipped scenes: the opening dungeon, a procedurally rendered forest, one of the game's towns, and other locales. Most viewers were impressed by Oblivion showing. In the words of one reporter, "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion isn't just one of the brightest gems in the Xbox 360's upcoming launch lineup, but it's also perhaps a perfect example of a next-generation role-playing game." Oblivion won a number of "best of" awards from a variety of game journalists: GameSpy's "RPG Game of Show" GameSpot's "Best RPG", IGN's "Best PC RPG", RPGFan's "Best Overall Game of E3 2005", and, most prestigiously, the "Best Role Playing Game" in the 2005 E3 Game Critics Awards.
A near-final build of Oblivion would later be shown at Microsoft's Consumer Electronics Show press tent—but not at its public Xbox 360 booth—in January 2006, showcasing the game's exteriors. A Joystiq reporter at the scene was not entirely impressed, finding the demo marred by long load times and slowdowns during combat. An Xbox representative reassured the reporter that all such issues would be worked out before the game's retail release. In the months prior to release, anticipation for the game ran high, with critics describing Oblivion as "the first next-gen game" only heightening attention. "People were expecting the game to cure blindness and heal the sick," said Hines.
Xbox 360 and PC release After an almost four-month delay, Oblivion went gold on March 2, 2006, and was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on March 21, 2006. Early rumors notwithstanding, Oblivion shipped on a single DVD-DL disc. One journalist voiced concern for the game's release date, as it was set in the same week as that of EA's The Godfather. Hines dismissed the suggestion, saying, "We tend to focus on what we can control and not worry about what we can't control. Given the level of interest and the number of pre-orders and so forth, we had a pretty good idea we'd be just fine no matter what else was happening that week." Oblivion was the first RPG title to be released for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. In addition to the standard release version, a Collector's Edition was released for both Windows and Xbox 360 which includes the 112-page Pocket Guide to the Empire, a bonus DVD containing concept art, renders, and an approximately 45-minute-long documentary on the making of Oblivion, and a coin replica of the in-game currency of Tamriel. Its suggested release price of US$69.99 brought back "memories of game prices circa the Nintendo 64" for one Kotaku commentator. Some suggested that the included coin be used to create a "garish piece of jewelry".
Oblivion was well received in the gaming press; in fact, many were surprised that given how anticipated the game had been, reviews were as consistently positive as they were. Metacritic, an aggregate review site, gave the game a 94% score; IGN, GameSpot and GameSpy each gave the game their own individual "RPG of the Year" award. Oblivion also sold well, selling 1.7 million copies by April 10, 2006. Additionally, three million copies were sold by January 18, 2007. Pete Hines was satisfied with the release: "I feel like we delivered on what people expected ... I think the scores and awards reflect that we delivered on people's expectations."
PlayStation 3 release The PS3 version of the game was ported/developed by 4J Studios who have worked with Bethesda in other projects. In April 2006, an inadvertently mailed version of Bethesda's supposed forthcoming game release list began a series of unconfirmed rumors of Oblivion releases for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The list suggested that Oblivion would be a PlayStation 3 launch title and that the PSP version would be released in November. These rumors were confirmed on September 28, 2006, when Bethesda officially announced the titles, setting the PlayStation 3 version's North American release date for November 2006, European release date for March 2007, and the PSP version for Spring 2007. The two titles were set to be published by Bethesda alone in North America, and with Ubisoft as a co-publisher in Europe. Hines was mum regarding the change in publishers: "Too much backroom stuff." Ubisoft saw their first-quarter sales for 2007 rise 90.5%, to 134 million Euros, exceeding previous forecasts by 14 million Euros. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot attributed the rise to "new-generation consoles and the impact of PlayStation 3 game sales, including Rainbow Six Vegas and Oblivion".