Bethesda Softworks Announces
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition

Expanded Version of Award-Winning Role Playing Game,
for PC, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION®3 system Available In September

July 9, 2007 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, announced today that it will release The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition (GotY) for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system from Sony, and Windows this September. Oblivion GotY will include the original version of the award-winning RPG Oblivion along with the official expansion, The Elder Scrolls® IV: Shivering Isles™, and the downloadable content, Knights of the Nine™.

This new product will allow players who have never played the 2006 Game of the Year to experience Oblivion for the first time with additional content. In addition, gamers can continue their existing games of Oblivion and experience the new quests and areas offered by the expansion and downloadable content.

Released in March 2006 for Windows and Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and in March 2007 for PLAYSTATION®3 system, Oblivion has already earned countless awards from publications around the world and won numerous Game of the Year and RPG of the Year awards. Gamerankings.com and MetaCritic.com list Oblivion as the highest rated game of all time on both Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3 system.

Oblivion features a powerful combination of free-form gameplay, unprecedented graphics, cutting edge AI, character voices by acting legends Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, Terrance Stamp, and Lynda Carter, and an award-winning soundtrack. Gamers can choose to unravel Oblivion’s epic narrative at their own pace or explore the vast world in search of their own unique challenges.

With more than 30 hours of new gameplay, Shivering Isles allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion – the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between the two sides – Mania and Dementia –filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within.  Sheogorath himself looks to you to be his champion and defend his realm and its inhabitants from destruction as you discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and much more.

Knights of the Nine features an all-new faction and quests for noble characters and answers many of the questions surrounding the Ayleid ruins found throughout Oblivion. Players can join a new faction and found their own order of holy knights – leading them into battle against a sorcerer-king and his demonic minions while exploring massive dungeons and searching for legendary relics – the holy armor and weapons of the Divine Crusader.

For more information on Oblivion, Shivering Isles, or The Elder Scrolls, visit www.elderscrolls.com.

"As you’d expect (especially given that this is just an expansion of the core Oblivion game, The Shivering Isles looks and sounds terrific. The two realms both look great, although I was a bit more partial to the colorful palette on display in Mania. The music is just as solid as ever, and the sound effects are crystal clear. Naturally, the same issues that many people had with the original game pop up here, from the occasionally stuttering visuals to the lip-synching on the NPCs. Despite these problems, this is still a great looking game."

"Upon investigating this mysterious portal, a screaming and clearly demented adventurer exits the portal back into Nibben bay, to be killed by a guard. The guard proceeds to warn you that all who enter will be sentencing themselves to a certain death, but fear not he will be there to “clean up the mess” when you return (ekkk)! Obviously the only thing to do is to totally ignore his advice. Onward we go !"

"You'll also get some fancy new armor sets and weaponry. From new enemy types and dungeons can be procured Amber and Madness Ore, which when brought to the proper smith in the main city of New Sheoth can be forged into some attractive pieces of equipment, with all the intricate detailing we've come to expect from Bethesda. Better still, these armors level with your character, so if you're still somewhat inexperienced, you can go back and forge a new set a few levels later and reap the benefits of augmented protection or increased weapon damage. Special Matrices allow magical versions of Amber and Madness items to be produced, but if you're a high level character you'll likely be applying your own enchants. A few unique weapons pop up as you follow the main story along with some new summons, and, depending on some of the choices you make during the main quest, the armor of the Golden Saints or Dark Seducers, who guard the Bliss and Dementia halves of New Sheoth, respectively."

"The Shivering Isles – the Live Arcade expansion pack for Oblivion – is set in the realm of the God of Madness, Sheogorath. Moments after you’ve stepped through the new gate in the Niben bay and met Haskill, the mad god’s entirely-too-sane manservant, you’re dumped in The Fringe, a walled area that serves to test new entrants to the realm. You’ve got to escape from there and become Sheogorath’s new champion bitch against the rapidly approaching Greymarch, the 1000-yearly assault of the forces of order on the land of madness."

New Features 10 new Xbox 360 Achievements for Shivering Isles

Bug Fixes

Improved LOD visual quality for landscape.

Optimizations to file loading system.

Taking items from dead owned creatures is no longer a crime.

 Fixed issue where lock/unlocked states on doors would occasionally be stored incorrectly in a save game.

NPCs no longer pop into view after player cancels out from the Wait menu.

Fixed memory leak with sitting in a chair multiple times.

 The reflection from the environment map in windows now displays properly.

Fixed an issue where player is still in combat even though the creature is no longer present.

Player can no longer fast travel when paralyzed.

Fixed infinite dialogue loop when arrested by guards who have high disposition to you.

Fixed issue where guards would not properly report crime if they were pickpocketed. Summoned creatures properly fade away when they are created from a leveled list.

 Fixed issue where stolen items would lose their stolen status if the player character was female.

Fixed crash that would occur with NPCs loading in with arrows. Pickup sound effects no longer play during the loading screen.

If you attack a creature owned by you, crime is no longer reported.

Fixed issue with LOD not loading in properly when entering/exiting worldspaces. Fixed infinite soul gems exploit by dropping and picking up stacked soul gems.

Fixed a crash with summoning a creature and immediately exiting the cell. Fixed a crash with stealing an object, exiting and immediately re-entering an interior.

Fixed issue where an NPC would occasionally not perform the proper idle animation.

Fixed an occasional crash when a creature loses detection on the player

Fixed an occasional crash with NPCs who were not loaded going into combat.

Quest Fixes In Light the Dragonfires, fixed issue where improper journal would appear if you closed an Oblivion gate.

In Till Death do They Part, fixed an issue where Melisande would not properly give you Cure Vampirism potion.