This week has been an amazing one for RPG fans. The long-awaited launch of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 finally happened, and Bethesda decided to shadow-drop The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Both appear to be doing quite well, but there was worry that this wouldn’t be the case. As soon as Oblivion Remastered got a surprise release, I saw plenty of people online saying they felt bad for the developers of Expedition 33 because they thought the remaster would take attention away from it. The reality is, there was enough room for both games.
While both Expedition 33 and Oblivion Remastered might be considered RPGs, they’re quite different games from each other. One is a throwback to turn-based Japanese classics, while the other is a refurbishing of a marquee Western RPG. Both games launching during the same week show that there is a lot of demand from players for vastly different RPGs, even though getting two in one week might be more than enough.
Expedition 33 and Oblivion Remastered are both fantastic games in their own right. Looking at Oblivion Remastered first, it was able to maintain the core of what made the 2006 classic great while giving it a beautiful overhaul using Unreal Engine 5. Virtuos paid a lot of attention to detail while making the upgrade, balancing its old-school quirks and charm with more modern considerations that make Oblivion more enjoyable to play in 2025. From small additions like being able to sprint to bigger changes like the visuals or reworked leveling system, Oblivion Remastered feels fresh even if you’ve played the original before.
Meanwhile, Expedition 33 recontextualizes Japanese RPG design through a French lens. Its turn-based structure, more linear design, and constantly escalating stakes all scream late 1990s JRPGs. But its visuals, setting, characters, writing, and addition of mechanics like parrying and dodging all feel more Western in origin. It’s impressive that Expedition 33 is one of Sandfall Interactive’s first games and is already considered one of the best of the year. Don’t be surprised if Expedition 33 pops up in Game of the Year talks toward the end of 2025.
Looking at the gameplay and strengths of both titles, I think it becomes clear that there was always room for Expedition 33 and Oblivion Remastered to coexist while launching in the same week. Oblivion Remastered is more suited for hardcore PC gamers and fans of titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Meanwhile, Expedition 33’s Japanese sensibilities make it appealing to the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Metaphor: ReFantazio crowds. While players of all those other games I mentioned might be seen as a monolith of “RPG fans,” there’s quite a bit of diversity in interest within the RPG fanbase.
While the couple of days between Oblivion Remastered and Expedition 33’s launch were filled with worry over one game’s impact on the other, in the end, both games found success. On Steam alone, Oblivion Remastered garnered 190,119 concurrent players the day it released, according to SteamDB. As for Expedition 33, it reached a concurrent player count of 71,225 on Steam on April 25th, and its developers have confirmed that it has already sold 500,000 copies. Both games are also available through Xbox Game Pass, so true player counts for both games are likely even bigger than these numbers suggest.
The success of both Oblivion Remastered and Expedition 33 proves there’s room for at least two games in the same genre to release on the same week if they’re distinct enough from each other. That said, other factors also play into success. Sunderfolk was another RPG that released this week and saw a more muted launch, possibly because it was drowned out by the two bigger RPGs. Sunderfolk is pretty cool and experimental, as players use their phones to control and play the game, but it didn’t have the pre-release hype or strong IP recognition to catch players’ eyes. That shows that the novelty of a surprise release or pre-launch buzz is what ultimately determines whether or not a game is drowned out by similar titles releasing around it..
Genres aren’t monoliths, and it’s possible for games to tackle a similar genre from wildly different angles. One game’s success doesn’t outright cause another game’s failure; there are so many other factors at play. As players, we should enjoy that there’s nothing bad about having a bit of variety in choosing what to play. In fact, 2025 has shown just how healthy the RPG space is right now, as many of its biggest games have fallen into that genre.
Both Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered are available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S and part of the Game Pass Ultimate catalog.
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