ZeniMax Online feared that the sudden release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered would hurt the popularity of their MMO — The Elder Scrolls Online. But the result was the opposite: the game only benefited.
As creative directors Nick Jacomini and Rich Lambert admitted in an interview, the concerns were not unfounded. The remaster did distract part of the audience, but only for a short time.
«The Oblivion remaster was a big event,» Lambert noted. «At first we thought: „Okay, this will hit our numbers.“ We noticed a slight decline, but later the numbers grew even stronger.» He compared it to the situation when the release of the Fallout series fueled interest in Bethesda games.
Jacomini added that new players continued to appear on TES Online servers after the remaster's release. According to him, the MMO became a «refuge» for many, where they could wait for the release of the next part of the series. Interestingly, many users do not even know that ZeniMax Online and Bethesda are different studios.
«I can't count how many times I've been asked: „When will TES 6 be released? What's up with this game?“ But this is a different developer,» Lambert emphasized.
