"Pretend we kept patching Oblivion. What would we have done if we kept supporting it?" – Todd Howard explains the "thought exercise" Bethesda went through for its remaster

Bethesda boss Todd Howard has explained the studio's approach to updates when it came to creating Oblivion Remastered.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Howard notes that remastering any of its titles is risky as "the chances of messing it up are way higher than not. So how do we do everything we can to make sure we're enhancing what Oblivion was for people who played it, and then reintroduce it." This led to the team taking a specific route when it came to the remaster, based on what the original game would look like now.

Howard explains that the approach revolved around "what are the modern things you want to do?" He recalls, "I did this thought exercise with the team. Pretend we kept patching Oblivion. What would we have done if we kept supporting it? And that's where you get a good list: We probably would have added sprinting, we probably would have adjusted the skill systems – because they are kind of punishing here. And that's where we sort of ended up, like 'this is what it's going to be.'"

However, Howard is aware that any changes for such a popular game – that players have been immersed in for what is approaching 20 years – will be heavily scrutinized, even if they end up being a net positive. He adds: "We felt really, really good about that, but you never know how the audience is going to react to it. It's also why we compressed the time from announcement to release."

So if you're expecting the rumored Fallout 3 Remaster to arrive in the near future, this will give you a better idea of the kinds of things Bethesda will be looking at when updating its 2008 RPG.

As Fallout 3 and New Vegas remake hopes and rumors persist, Bethesda's Todd Howard says he's actually "anti-remake" and prefers remasters like Oblivion's instead.