I may have dabbled with Xbox in the early days, but at some point I made the full switch over to PC gaming. The high frequency of Steam sales has usually been enough to tide me over on newer releases. So while I knew Game Pass was out there and did occasionally offer some big name games, there was never a moment where it felt like it would be worth it for me, personally. Well, until yesterday.

Bethesda and Virtuos shadow-dropping Oblivion Remastered straight onto Game Pass? A badly kept secret, but still an insane reveal. Tomorrow, the gaming subscription will get Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the stylish debut from Sandfall Interactive that takes inspiration from the JRPG greats. I have to admit, as a die-hard RPG fan: Microsoft, you finally got me.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Both Hit Game Pass This Week

Assassin’s Creed Shadows debuted last month to become the best-selling game in the U.S. for March 2025 in dollar sales.

This is according to analytics firm Circana, which reports that Shadows has also become the second best-selling game so far this year, trailing only Monster Hunter: Wilds and ahead of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. It was also the best-selling game on Xbox in March, and second best-selling game on PlayStation and Steam.

We reached out to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella for a bit more context on Assassin’s Creed: Shadows’ success. He told us that Shadows’ launch was the third-biggest in franchise history in the U.S., following Assassin’s Creed 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. “It’s a great start, so now we’ll have to see where it goes from here.”

Last month, Ubisoft created a subsidiary company based on its Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six brands, with a €1.16 billion (approx. $1.25 billion) investment from Chinese megacorp Tencent.

The news came after Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Shadows had passed the 3 million player mark. Ubisoft suffered a number of high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations in the run up to Shadows’ release, and there is enormous pressure on it to succeed after the company’s share price hit an historic low.

Other stats reported by Ubisoft were already revealed by IGN’s coverage of an internal email in which the company contextualized Shadows’ opening weekend performance, saying it was better compared to Origins and Odyssey rather than the “perfect storm” 2020’s Valhalla launched into.

Shadows saw the second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin’s Creed franchise history, behind only Valhalla, the biggest Ubisoft day-one ever on the PlayStation Store, and has seen over 40 million hours played so far.

March was a big month for new releases, with seven of the top 20 games entering the charts for the first time, including WWE 2K24 (No.4), Split Fiction (No.5), Bleach: Rebirth of Souls (No.9), Xenoblade Chronicles X (No.17), and Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars (No.18). Hello Kitty Island Adventure also ranked No. 4 on Nintendo Switch specifically in its console debut, and free-to-play game FragPunk debuted at No.8 in the Top 10 Steam charts ranked by Monthly Active Users (MAUs).

In second place this month, just behind Assassin’s Creed, was another debut title: MLB: The Show 25, which was also the best-selling game for the month on PlayStation. Its sales were 23% higher than its predecessor, MLB The Show 24, during the same debut month last year.

Other games doing well in March included Fortnite, which led all games in MAUs on both Xbox and PlayStation, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which leapt from No.103 in February to No.10 in March on PlayStation specifically thanks to being added to PS+. Co-op horror game R.E.P.O. made a similar leap from No.93 in its debut month of February to No.1 in March on the Steam MAU charts, likely due to growing social media virality over time.

Despite all these exciting new releases doing pretty well for themselves, March was actually a bit of a low month for games as a whole. Overall games spending dropped 6% year-over-year to $4.7 billion, and content spending dropped 4% year-over-year to $4.2 billion, Circana reports. Non-mobile subscriptions and digital premium downloads on console were the only content areas showing growth.

I asked Piscatella for context as to why content spend was down, and he pointed to mobile as the primary perpetrator. Mobile spending, per SensorTower’s report, was down 6% year-over-year.

“Mobile being such a big component of content means that a dip there usually means the market dips. Console full game download spending was up this March. But declines in mobile and drops in PC full game spend and a drop in digital add on content spending meant overall content fell.”

As for hardware, spending was down 25% year-over-year to $286 million, the lowest March spending total since 2019 ($279 million). PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console of the month, but its sales were still down 26% year-over-year. Xbox took second place, down 9% year-over-year, and Switch sales were down 37% from last year, likely in anticipation of the impending successor, the Nintendo Switch 2.

March 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:

1. Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (NEW)
2. MLB: The Show 25* (NEW)
3. Monster Hunter: Wilds
4. WWE 2K25 (NEW)
5. Split Ficton (NEW)
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
7. PGA Tour 2K25
8. NBA 2K25
9. Bleach: Rebirth of Souls (NEW)
10. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
11. Minecraft*
12. Grand Theft Auto V
13. EA Sports FC 25
14. Red Dead Redemption II
15. Madden NFL 25
16. Elden Ring
17. Xenoblade Chronicles X* (NEW)
18. Suikoden I & II Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unificaiton Wars (NEW)
19. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
20. EA Sports College Football 25

* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, do not share certain digital data for this report.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Original The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion senior game designer Bruce Nesmith has said Bethesda and Virtuos’ Oblivion Remastered is so impressive that he’s not sure calling it a remaster “actually does it justice.”

The mastermind behind much of what made the OG 2006 RPG so special shared his thoughts about the newly announced – and released – Oblivion remaster during a recent conversation with VideoGamer. He touched on the “blood, sweat, and tears” that went into bringing every inch of Cyrodiil to life, and that’s why it’s been such a shock to see Oblivion reimagined in nearly every way.

“I was assuming this was going to be a texture update,” Nesmith said. “I didn’t really think it was going to be the complete overhaul that they’ve announced it to be… I would not have batted an eye at that. But to completely redo the animations, the animation system, put in the Unreal Engine, change the leveling system, change the user interface. I mean, that’s, you’re touching every part of the game.”

Bethesda didn’t officially mention Oblivion Remastered before its launch yesterday. Still, longtime fans have been left mostly impressed by the countless changes that range from shallow visual touchups to fundamental gameplay tweaks. Additions such as a new sprint mechanic and changes to the leveling system have many feeling like Oblivion Remastered is less of a remaster and more of a remake, and Nesmith is leaning the same way.

“That’s a staggering amount of remastering,” he added. “It almost needs its own word, quite frankly. I’m not sure remaster actually does it justice.”

Elsewhere in his chat, he attempted to label what he’s seen from Oblivion Remastered so far: “The closest that could come [to categorising it] is Oblivion 2.0.”

As fans gather to appreciate the work that’s gone into Oblivion Remastered, Bethesda has chimed in with its own explanation for how it came up with the name for its RPG re-release. In a statement posted to social media yesterday, the studio explained that it “never wanted to remake” Oblivion. Instead, its focus was maintaining the experience players know and love while modernizing it for newcomers, warts and all.

“We know many of our longtime fans will be thrilled to revisit Oblivion and the land of Cyrodiil,” Bethesda’s statement added. “But there are also so many who have never played it. We can’t thank you enough for all the support you have given us and our games over the years. Our hope with this remaster is, that no matter who you are, when you step out of the Imperial sewer – you feel like you’re experiencing it for the first time.”

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was revealed and released yesterday as a shadow drop from Bethesda. You can hop into its reimagined version of Cyrodiil on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S now, and if you’re an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, it’s available at no extra cost. For more on how Oblivion Remastered has reinvigorated the Elder Scrolls community, you can check in on how the modding community responded to the surprise launch.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, and much more.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

By Azura, by Azura, by Azura – the rumors were true. Yesterday, Bethesda set the internet on fire by finally pulling back the curtain on Virtuos’ remaster (or is it really a remake?) of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. An ‘Elder Scrolls Direct’ of sorts culminated in the surprise shadow-drop, which near-immediately transformed into hundreds of thousands of concurrent players. This moment of global hype and celebration feels like a much-needed port in the current storm Bethesda Game Studios has been facing in recent years. From conducting years-long damage control to rectify Fallout 76’s misfire launch, to the lackluster reception of its new sci-fi universe, Starfield, the studio’s most recent output has had many fans asking the same question: Has Bethesda lost the magic? There’s fiercer competition in the RPG space these days, with Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 and Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds franchise both garnering critical acclaim as Elder Scrolls and Fallout spiritual successors. But while Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 may be years away from reclaiming their crowns, this re-release of Oblivion may be a step in the right direction – just not in the direction you’d expect.

At its peak, Bethesda Game Studios was an RPG juggernaut. In 2020, Microsoft’s leaked FTC documents revealed that Fallout 4 had sold 25 million units-to-date. The game shifted over 5 million units in its first week alone according to VGChartz. Likewise, in 2023 Todd Howard announced Skyrim had crossed 60 million sales (though it’s worth noting rereleasing it 50 times likely helped). So what about Starfield? Estimates put it at just over three million units a year-and-a-half post launch. While taking into account Game Pass subscribers (which would boost players if not sales) and Starfield’s lack of a PlayStation presence, this must still be something of a disappointment for Bethesda. And while there is a Starfield fanbase, it’s far smaller than that enjoyed by The Elder Scrolls or Fallout, and even it has voiced displeasure with the game’s first expansion, Shattered Space.

This all leaves the developer with a big problem. With The Elder Scrolls 6 “years away” and Fallout 5 just a whisper in the hallowed halls of the studio’s corridors, how can this once-iconic RPG developer enchant their fanbase once more? The answer lies in its past.

Rumours of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remaster began back in September 2023, when leaked Microsoft documents revealed a number of unannounced Bethesda titles, including a remaster of 2006’s landmark trip to Tamriel (it also includes another interesting remaster – we’ll get to that soon). All was quiet until January 2025, when a former employee of Virtuos let slip more details, dividing Elder Scrolls fans as to their authenticity like the Stormcloaks vs. the Imperials. Finally, last week the dam broke (albeit early), setting the internet ablaze – there were over 6.4 million Google searches for ‘The Elder Scrolls VI: Oblivion’, rising by 713% in the last week alone. At its peak, Bethesda’s reveal livestream had over half a million viewers watching. Despite the leaks (or perhaps because of them), over 600,000 people tuned in to see a 19-year-old game re-revealed to them. The intense fervent demand to play the remaster caused discount game key websites like CDKeys to crash, and slowed Fanatical and Green Man Gaming to a crawl. As of yesterday, Steam’s concurrent players stood at 125,000 and the game is firmly the #1 best seller. The enthusiasm Bethesda fans have for Oblivion burns as bright as the flames that spill from the Oblivion gates themselves.

The message from players is clear: if you (re)build it, they will come. What better way to keep fans engaged and invested during these long development periods than to invite them to take a trip back to the mysterious isles of Morrowind or the hollowed-out husk of the East Coast? From a commercial standpoint, it makes clear sense. While Bethesda’s main development staff toils away on long-gestating new projects, trusted partners like Virtuos can use historic blueprints to craft remasters in shorter time frames. Such remasters are based on games with built-in audiences, and for many they’re the first real RPGs gamers will have sunk their teeth into during their respective generations. Restoring these works also invites a whole new generation to become obsessed with the inner workings of the land of Tamriel or crawl out from the post-apocalyptic fallout into Las Vegas and D.C.

Bethesda has already strategically uplifted its own catalogue once before. Fallout 4 was discounted by up to 75% during the Fallout TV show’s first season on Prime Video, alongside a cleverly scheduled next-gen update which brought over certain homages from the show. As a result, Fallout 4 sales jumped over 7,500% in Europe alone despite being nearly a decade old.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has only been out for 24 hours, but already players are enjoying its nostalgia-fueled gameplay — bugs and all.

Every veteran Bethesda fan knows the studio’s games come with a generous dollop of jank. Oblivion, which first launched in 2006, was one of the chief culprits, with objects flying all over the place, characters making poorly-timed (but often hilarious) on-screen interjections, and things happening in the background that, in the context of what was going on in the foreground, were perfect meme material.

Nearly 20 years later, and Bethesda’s remaster (not a remake, it’s insisted), has all the “charm,” of the original, as Todd Howard put it. And that’s not an issue. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“Oblivion is back,” is what players of the remaster are saying in response to clips of the game going wrong in some way, or doing that Bethesda game thing of having a random NPC’s face steal the scene.

Even glitches players exploited in the original Oblivion have been found to work in the remaster.

The permanent bound weapons and armour glitch still works in Oblivion Remastered LMAO pic.twitter.com/Nzp8gCAucK

— Nerbit (@Nerbit_13098) April 22, 2025

And players are recreating Oblivion memes, trying to recapture the hilarity of the game’s NPC behavior as it was all those years ago.

Original for comparison pic.twitter.com/egYXGxe438

— crobb 🌹 (@corombb) April 23, 2025

None of Oblivion Remastered’s jank is seriously affecting player enjoyment of the game. For some it offers a warm familiarity. Can you imagine if the game had stripped all this out? It would feel… soulless, somehow, and nothing like the original fans fondly remember. Perhaps such attention on polish is best reserved for The Elder Scrolls VI.

Bugs, glitches, and memes are just one aspect of Oblivion Remastered’s success, which has seen players use the character creator to come up with some hilarious and nightmarish faces. There are also already loads of mods available, despite Oblivion Remastered not officially supporting them.

And it really does look like Oblivion Remastered is a hit. On Steam it enjoyed an impressive peak concurrent player count of over 180,000 on release day — a figure that’s set to increase as the game heads into its first weekend on sale.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, and much more.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.