Oblivion Remastered és Hi-Fi Rush nem egyszeri anomália volt: Bethesda vezetése kifejezetten rákapott a meglepetés-megjelenések ízére, és a jövőben tudatosan szeretne még több ilyen azonnali rajtot. A kiadó célja, hogy a „shadowdrop” típusú bejelentésekkel egy pillanat alatt magára irányítsa a figyelmet, Todd Howard pedig nyíltan ünnepli a meglepetés faktor erejét.

Surprise releases, also known as shadow drops, have become one of the most talked-about and well-loved tactics in the modern gaming industry. When a company unveils a project during a showcase and then pushes it out to the public just minutes later, it generates a surge of excitement, floods social media with reactions, and instantly shifts the conversation toward that single game. Players clearly enjoy these out-of-nowhere launches, and Bethesda seems to be just as enthusiastic, to the point where it looks ready to double down on the model after two recent shadowdrop-style releases.

Tom Mustaine, head of Bethesda Game Studios, used his appearance at the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards to express how eager the team is to repeat the formula following the success of Hi-Fi Rush and this year’s surprise launch of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. The Bethesda executive explained that this approach enables the company to effectively “own the internet” for a day and speak directly to what players want, in a crowded release calendar shaped by TikTok-driven consumption habits and short attention spans.

“We had a resounding success with Hi-Fi Rush through Xbox and Bethesda. Todd Howard, the head, has long wanted to release things via shadowdrops because it is great to be able to say, ‘Here it is, play it today.’ It is very valuable,” Mustaine noted in an interview with GamesRadar. At the same time, he acknowledged that the strategy comes with real risks. While the media impact of a shadowdrop is impossible to deny, not every player is thrilled by it, especially when it complicates the logistics of physical editions and manufacturing schedules, something that was painfully clear during the controversial Oblivion Remastered rollout.

What Will Bethesda’s Next Shadowdrop Be?

It is hard to give a definitive answer to that question, but if we are going to speculate, the safest bet would be a Fallout 3 remaster. The project’s existence was already hinted at in documents from the FTC vs. Microsoft lawsuit related to the Activision Blizzard acquisition. On top of that, VGC reported a few weeks ago that a remastered version of Fallout 3 is currently in development, and given the huge momentum of the Fallout franchise, it is exactly the sort of RPG that barely needs a traditional marketing ramp-up to dominate the conversation. Bethesda could drop it tomorrow, and within hours, almost everyone in the gaming community would be talking about it.

Source: 3djuegos