Bethesda (finally) confirms Shivering Isles Oblivion expansion

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jan 18th 2007 at 12:27PM }

The Shivering Isles expansion pack has been officially announced by Bethesda and will be available on PC through retail this spring. At that same time, the new content will be distributed through Xbox Live Marketplace to Xbox 360 Oblivion owners. The possibility of Shivering Isles releasing on PlayStation 3 has not been addressed, but presumably Bethesda could include the expansion with the forthcoming PS3 release of Oblivion (if there's any space left on the Blu-ray disc) or opt for digital distribution.

Today's announcement confirms many of the details that were revealed in PCZone, which published news of the Oblivion expansion several weeks ago. Bethesda's decision to cease its silence is likely tied to an OXM feature article that hits newsstands this week. Bethesda claims Shivering Isles with feature 30+ hours of gameplay, suggesting that the expansion will set a new bar, both in scope and price, for premium add-on content distributed via Xbox Live. Horse armor this is not.

Tags: Bethesda, ElderScrolls, Expansion, Oblivion, Shivering Isles, ShiveringIsles, XboxLive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Thryon @ Jan 18th 2007 12:37PM

I was reading up on this in OXM just last night. The expansion looks very good. I cannot wait to play it. I wonder what the cost will be, since full size expansions go for about $20, I will guess at about 1600 points.

Norm @ Jan 18th 2007 12:43PM

Whoah, imagine how long that would take to download on the PS3. Gripshift and Tekken 5 DR both took about 4 hours to download on my system, and that is just rediculous! 800mb shouldn't take that long with a cable modem, when I can get a movie on XB live in like 20 minutes.

Burl @ Jan 18th 2007 1:31PM

I wonder if they are going to add new achievements for the 360 version?

Brian @ Jan 18th 2007 12:53PM

Great, I sold this game after I finished it last summer and now I have to go out and buy it again. Sigh...

Thryon @ Jan 18th 2007 12:53PM

One thing I have not seen posted is a small text box in that article in OXM that talked about Fallout 3, and how it will use a modified version of Oblivion's Gamebryo engine. Bethesda promises a huge, open-ended game. It also indicated it being in full production since late 2006, by the same executive producer of Oblivion. Now that has got me really excited.

Intentless @ Jan 18th 2007 1:06PM

If it isn't included on the disk for the PS3 you could always start the download when you get it and hopefully after you have finished the main quest and become leader of all the guilds maybe it'll be close to finishing... you know the whole like 100 hrs later...

Efren @ Jan 18th 2007 1:27PM

Thank god you guys reminded me about the horse armor debacle, cause I had forgotten all about it.

Nina @ Jan 18th 2007 1:06PM

Never understood why all these guys are being so crazy about these computer games! Is it really worth of wasting your time? Or is THIS game special?

joe smith @ Jan 18th 2007 7:17PM

I'm in. I had zero life for weeks after Oblivion came out. I still fire it up to show people what a real Next Gen game should be.

Scooby Doo @ Jan 18th 2007 1:18PM

Well, I really enjoyed Oblivion up until I finished the main story line. After that, it's hard for me to play the game. For me, Oblivion just isn't that much fun without some story progression so I like the additional content, especially when it provides a lot more play-time.

The thing that kind of ticks me off though is that Bethesda should have been more forthcoming about planned expansions and what they would include. I purchased all the additional content with the exception of the Thieve's Den and Horse Armor, but when the Nights of the Nine came out, it had all of those official plug-ins in the Retail Package. So I wound up paying for some things twice because they kept telling us it was the only way we'd get additional content for a while.

It's good to see them add this. I'll definitely be picking up a copy when it becomes available, but I still think it's unfair when companies don't tell you about things that would effect your consumer purchases.

Marty @ Jan 18th 2007 2:36PM

So they would sell the regular game and then sell the expansion separately to everyone except PS3 owners huh? What are you guys smoking? Unless they charge $80-$90 for the PS3 version, they are not going to include this with it.

Joe @ Jan 18th 2007 3:36PM

All I want is Bethesda to add Shivering Isles in the PS3 version. This way I do not have to buy the Download. Plus I have Heard the the PS3 version will be in 1080P. So does any one know if that is true or not.

waxc3 @ Jan 18th 2007 2:17PM

oh i so really wish i could buy an official disc with ALL of the extra content.
sadly no broadband available at my house = no more oblivion for me... :(

bethesda, you listening!?

propanol @ Jan 18th 2007 4:21PM

An addon to the most ambitious techdemo ever released. Great.

TeddyN @ Jan 18th 2007 6:02PM

Oblivion is such a fantastic game, I'm very happy they're giving us extra content. Maybe this expansion will be more substancial in terms of content, rather than just an assimilation of mini-addons.

This will come out at a perfect time; although I consider myself a fan of the game, I haven't actually played it too much because I was frustrated by the lacklustre framerates. I will soon be upgrading my system to newer hardware (DX10 graphics card) which should do the trick for me to properly enjoy the game. Even the top of the range of last year's hardware (I have an x1900 xtx) didn't quite match the game at higher resolutions. With an 8800 GTX though, I should be able to play on my 24" monitor, and not feel like I'm going back to an old game (thanks to Shivering Isles).

bornonce @ Jan 18th 2007 11:05PM

I would think, that , if Bethesda is going to release any added content for free on the PS3 disk, and still charge the customary $60.00 for it, that they should then make all of the existing expansion pacts FREE to both PC and XBOX 360 owners. That would only be fair.

I think that they are headed in that direction. They recently offered Mehrune's Razor for free on XBOX Live, and OXM had an included disk last issue that had both Thief's Den and the Wizard's Tower.

Dan Lowe @ Jan 20th 2007 1:25AM

I don't see the expansion being released along with the PS3 version altogether in one disc, but I don't think it has anything to do with being fair. X-Box 360 and the PC have had their versions for months. The game was supposed to be a launch title for Sony and it got pushed back three months. I'm fine with pushing games back to release them right (cough, Star Trek Legacy) but I'd say it's just as fair to make up for lost time with a hunk of packaged content. If you remember, that's what Knights of the Round was supposed to be.