Skyblivion (the fan-made Oblivion remake that's being rebuilt inside of Skyrim) has been a long time coming, but we might need to wait a while longer for the conversion mod to see the light of day due to a new legal issue.
One of the ambitious project's lead modders, Rebelzize, today uploaded a video about the ongoing situation. "Recently, a former volunteer who contributed to Skyblivion's development departed the project. We want to be completely transparent with the community about what has happened since their departure," he explains in the description.
"After they left the project, we had several discussions regarding the continued use and maintenance of his work. The main disagreement centered on their objection to our decompilation of parts of their work — a necessary step our team took to maintain functionality and fix issues in systems already built into the project after access to the original source code repository was revoked," Rebelzize adds.
Rebelzize doesn't name the former modder in an effort to avoid creating an online "witch hunt," but they eventually sent the Skyblivion folks a series of legal threats demanding the real names and home addresses of several other volunteer team members - "something that we are simply not willing to share with somebody that we don't even know," Rebelzize says, calling the demands "disproportionate." The former modder is apparently looking to sue for damages worth upwards of €30,000.
"A 'take your ball and go home' approach like this fundamentally contradicts the collaborative, open spirit of the modding community that makes massive passion projects like this possible," Rebelzize continues. "To protect our volunteers from undue stress and ensure a clean break, in good faith we removed their code, rebuilding and improving the system from the ground up."
Despite removing their work from Skyblivion, the anonymous former volunteer has apparently "continued to intensify their threats." The Skyblivion team is now looking for help from anyone experienced in IP and GDPR law, pointing interested folks toward their official website.
Last year, it looked like a Skyblivion release date could be right around the corner. There's still no word on when we can expect the gorgeous fan-led revival, though.
