We all had that friend back in elementary school. You know the one, the friend who said that his dad worked for Nintendo, and he knew all the secret Pokemon that were going to come out or the friend who swore that he was a smart hacker and was able to get Crash Bandicoot to run on his N64.

As we got older, it seemed like all of those friends of ours came together on the internet to churn out constant rumors and lies about new upcoming games or content. One such example was a story started nearly a decade ago about a possible Elder Scrolls game in development for the PSP titled The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion.

For a brief moment the internet was swept up in speculation over whether or not the game was a reality or not, but after several years with no official announcement, it was assumed to be yet another hoax and forgotten. That was until several days about when a Reddit user by the name of 420PraiseIt posted a message to the PSP subreddit. The message is as follows:

“Hi all, recently I came across a few rare discs, implying to be those of the canceled Oblivion game for the PSP. You can follow my efforts in getting them to work on this thread. I had no idea if they worked if they’d be playable if anything could be salvaged. But today I’m writing to you to say, they are playable. I don’t know how many hours of gameplay you’ll get, and the files aren’t yet working with an emulator (so you’ll need a homebrewed PSP to play), but they’re here and very exciting. The links for public download will be available soon, but for now check out PtoPOnline’s videos of the gameplay in action (here’s the first, there’s a few), massive shout out to him for getting them working, and thanks to everyone who has supported me in getting the games out to the public, especially on r/psp. Special thanks to the buyer too, who made the transition from private to public use so much easier, go check out Benefactor at tamrielfoundry.com. Thanks all for making this possible, also Morderax is my alt, so thanks for the shoutout PtoP!”

Following this, he posted an update several days later;

“Hi all, 

First up, sorry for all the cloak and daggers. Shout out to /u/Zandengoff for locking the thread.

For those who joined this thread a little later, the game in question is an unreleased copy of Oblivion for the PSP. I came across it at my place of work, and immediately made a copy. However at the same time, my boss had found a private buyer for the disc. The buyer expressed wishes to keep the files unreleased to the public and wanted me to delete my copies, this did not bode well, I had to delete the posts in order to keep my job in tact (though I can’t say my intentions to release the game had changed).

Fortunately, an Elder Scrolls expert in-boxed me repeatedly, asking for more info, asking about the files, offering a hand. That expert also made a competitive bid, and expressed wishes for the files to go public. I can now confirm that I have completed business with that expert, /u/gladys410 – to those of you excited to see what the files hold, you have him to thank for speeding the process up, and I also have him to thanks for doing so in a way that keeps my job safe. Give him some love.

I will be posting the discs internationally very soon, he is aware that I still have copies, and wishes for the public to have them too.
Once again, sorry about the secrecy but I really hope it will be worth it. Keep your eyes on the thread, it will be updated with access to the files over the next coming days, however, whether the files can be salvaged into playable content, I don’t know and cannot guarantee.”

Not long after that, gameplay footage for the unreleased title began to appear online. However, Zenimax and Bethesda have been very quick to flag any and all gameplay videos. Unfortunately for Bethesda, the discussion about the unreleased Oblivion spinoff is currently dominating the discussion on both the Elder Scrolls and PSP subreddits and goes to show that the harder you try to hide something, the more likely people are going to look into it.

The most interesting part of this discovery is that the original Reddit post claims to want to get the game playable and in a public release, which means we will be able to see what could have been. Personally, I can only hope that the interest in this title shows that there is a market on the handhelds for good western RPGS.

Who knows, maybe Bethesda will see this and maybe give a handheld Elder Scrolls game another try.

Are you interested in trying out ElderScrolls Travels Oblivion? Would you like to see more RPGS on handhelds? Let us know in the comment section below! We will update this article if or when more information becomes available.