Oblivion Remastered has a nasty bug that tanks performance if you play for too long
A bug PS3 fans will remember from Skyrim in 2011 returns
😬 A surprising bug has been spotted in Oblivion Remastered which can severely impact performance
📉 If you leave the game running for 15 minutes, according to Digital Foundry, it can negatively impact your frame rate by a large margin
👉 The solution is to reset your game every 15 minutes, although it isn't a sustainable fix
🤷♂️ This isn't the first time this issue has occurred in an Elder Scrolls game for consoles, with a similar bug famously impacting Skyrim on PS3
Apparently, the longer you play Oblivion Remastered for on PS5 and Xbox consoles, the worse the game performs.
According to Digital Foundry, the longer you leave the game running, the harder it is for the title to meet its 60fps target.
This has been tested across the console's main platforms, including PS5 and PS5 Pro, and is a result of a memory leak in the game that has causes a gradual decrease in performance and frame rate.
The bug can supposedly result in a deficit of up to 15fps after just 15 minutes of the game running. From a freshly booted title screen at 60fps, the game can drop to 45fps in a “charged playthrough” – the longer you leave the game running, the further the third person camera shifts from being on horseback to where you can't see your character when riding.
Digital Foundry recommends a fresh reset of the game every 15 minutes to alleviate the problem somewhat, and has appealed to Bethesda for a proper fix.
Sadly, this isn't the first time this has occurred in an Elder Scrolls title, with a similar error on the original version of Skyrim back on the PS3. The infamous 'Rimlag' issue, which DF also covered back in 2011, marked the first time their performance testing gear had hit 0fps..
After some surprising leaks, the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was officially unveiled back in April 2025 and is a Virtuos-developed remaster of the classic title in Unreal Engine 5. It retains elements of the original game but includes some new features and upgrades to make it a much more modern-looking effort.
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.