Are Shadow Drops the Future? Bethesda's Betting on Them After Oblivion Remastered Success

Oblivion Remastered was a hit for Bethesda — despite its dodgy performance issues — and the publisher's keen to repeat the level of hype that was swirling when the remake launched back in April.

Basically, Bethesda's all-in on the idea of shadow dropping its games — that is, releasing them with no prior announcement and watching fans lose their minds.

According to Bethesda Game Studios director Tom Mustaine, it's company boss Todd Howard who's pushing for the continued shadow drop approach.

Mustaine told GamesRadar: "Todd Howard, the boss man, he's wanted to shadow drop things for a long time because it's so great to be able to say, 'Here's the thing, get it today.' It's very valuable."

Mustaine goes on to outline his own thoughts on sudden releases, commenting that "we all have short attention spans now [...] There's Grand Theft Auto, for example. I want that today, right? So it is an interesting strategy... I don't have any ideas of what would be next, but I hope [Oblivion Remastered's] not the last."

We agree with him in that it's certainly an interesting strategy — but we also don't think that a shadow drop guarantees success.

For example, in Oblivion's case, we can't just ignore the fact that the game was leaked numerous times up until said shadow drop. There was a marketing campaign going on — it was just driven by fans rather than the company.

Still, in an age where big budget projects can take half a decade to actually see the light of day, we're not against Bethesda's potential plans. At the very least, it's probably a more exciting alternative to having a game be announced years before its eventual launch.

What do you make of Bethesda's perspective? Are shadow drops the future? Keep your eyes peeled in the comments section below.

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