The Oblivion Remake Has Me Wishing Every Game Was Shadow Dropped
Nowadays, there isn’t much point putting stock into video game release dates. With how often games are announced, only to leave fans in the dark for more than half a decade or be delayed and then delayed and then delayed again, it doesn’t do much good to spend my time trying to remember the dates attached to projects that are most likely going to change as we get closer.
We’ve heard news that a remake or remaster was in the works for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion for quite some time now, but this week’s showcase for the game wasn’t just exciting because we finally got an official look at Oblivion Remastered, but because Bethesda and Vitruos got to pull the coolest game dev move of all time: shadow dropping a game.
With Oblivion Remastered releasing at the exact same moment it was officially announced, I’ve officially decided that I want every major game to follow in its footsteps.
Shadow Drops Make Me Feel Like A Kid Again
There’s something so fun about a game being shadow dropped. You’re watching a showcase and then, bam, someone says, “and you’ll be able to play *insert game here* today,” right at the end of the show. If you’re watching with someone else, you immediately turn to look at them and your faces light up with glee. That’s what happened for me, at least, when Hi-Fi Rush was shadow dropped in 2023, and it turned out to be one of the best games of the year in a year packed to the brim with incredible releases.
What makes something like Hi-Fi Rush, Oblivion Remastered, or anything else that gets shadow dropped so special is that you kind of feel like you’ve been given a surprise gift, especially if the game in question is launching on Game Pass. All of a sudden, you’ve got a new game to look forward to whenever you’re done with work or when you’ve got the time to shut the world out and hunker down for the weekend.
Then, when you’re thinking about the game, there’s a layer of anticipation and joy baked into the experience because you got to feel like you were there for a fun moment in the games industry. And then you watch every showcase hoping for something similar to happen.
Shadow Drop Everything, Please
We’ve seen shadow drops happen at Xbox Showcases and at a handful of Nintendo Directs with games like Metroid Prime Remastered and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, so now no one fully knows what to expect when going into a showcase. There are always pie-in-the-sky hopes that something like Hollow Knight: Silksong will be dropped as a ‘one more thing’’ at the end of a presentation, and I like the excitement that comes with every direct nowadays.
With how little release dates mean anymore thanks to delays and whatnot, part of me thinks we should just do away with them. Why bother with trailers if you can dominate the news for a week or two by launching a game without prior warning?
Obviously, that doesn’t work for every game – most games need at least some level of marketing – but there’s just something so cool about launching a game like Oblivion Remastered by showing off some footage and saying, ‘we know you want to play this, so why not sit down and do it right now?’
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Level up your gaming knowledge with TheGamer, your passport to the world of gaming. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.Most first-party releases from Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation could pull off a move like that, but Xbox has been the only studio to really lean into doing it. Nintendo seemed to be testing the waters with Metroid Prime Remastered, but we’re still waiting on PlayStation to jump on the shadow drop train. We know Ghost of Yotei is still expected to launch later this year, but we don’t have a release date for it yet. Who knows? Maybe Sony is taking notes and it’ll come out during the next PlayStation showcase. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
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