Elder Scrolls Online Director Explains Opting For Subscriptions

[Andy Chalk]

Elder Scrolls Online Director Explains Opting For Subscriptions

The Elder Scrolls Online Director Matt Firor says a free-to-play MMO wouldn't be a true "Elder Scrolls experience."

Yesterday's announcement [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127057-The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Will-Have-Subscription-Fees] that The Elder Scrolls Online will require a monthly subscription fee was met with a certain degree of surprise from an awful lot of gamers. Conventional wisdom is that the subscription model is effectively dead, a widely-held opinion reinforced by the spectacular failure of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which switched to a free-to-play model after less than a year of operation. So how does Bethesda figure The Elder Scrolls Online can make it work, if a money-printing IP like Star Wars couldn't?

Firor said The Elder Scrolls Online is a "world," and Bethesda doesn't want monetization options taking players out of it. "It's like, I go into a dungeon, if I don't have access to the dungeon it pops up a window: you don't have access to this, go buy 50 credits. We didn't want that experience. That's not an Elder Scrolls experience," he told Eurogamer. "We wanted to do monetization outside of the game. So, if I pay for a month at a time, I have 100 percent of the game. I don't have to worry about paying one more cent. I'll never run into a pay gate and I'll be in the world."

Bethesda also wants a "steady forecastable revenue stream" so it can effectively plan and pay for content updates. TESO will launch with the Mages and Fighters Guild questlines built-in, and Bethesda plans to add the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood in a future update. "Those are 15 hours of content apiece," Firor said. "We're talking major new stuff, which is going to be coming out constantly. And the way to do that the best for us is with a subscription."

The Elder Scrolls Online is currently expected to launch in early 2014 for the PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, at a cost of $14.99 per month.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-22-the-elder-scrolls-online-dev-explains-decision-to-charge-9-monthly-subscription]


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[Mr.Pandah]

...Are there pay gates or pay worlds? I was under the understanding that the F2P model had things you can purchase but didn't restrict access to areas/portions of the game.

 

[Voulan]

I can understand it, but I don't have to like it. I can't justify paying monthly for a game, or I'll worry about getting my money's worth and play constantly to make up for it. And I certainly won't be able to.

That's good news for people willing to put up for it, I suppose.

 

[Seydaman]

...Are there pay gates or pay worlds? I was under the understanding that the F2P model had things you can purchase but didn't restrict access to areas/portions of the game.

It varies from game to game, LOTRO has pay-gates, as does DDO Online, I believe SWTOR does too, the only F2P game I can think of that doesn't is Rift, but you can't access the expansion content without paying sooo?

OT: I like the subscrip model far more than I do the F2P micro-transaction model. More stuff I seem to kind of like in ESO...interesting.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

The mindset of this guy. Does he think that if he carefully explains it, I will suddenly develop a desire to pay for it? No. You tool.

 

[Korten12]

...Are there pay gates or pay worlds? I was under the understanding that the F2P model had things you can purchase but didn't restrict access to areas/portions of the game.

Some games. It depends. I know TERA/Aion are completely free. In that even content updates are free.

 

[Bat Vader]

I took part in last Thursdays stress test of the beta and I really enjoyed the time that I had with it. I don't mind paying $15.00 dollars a month for an MMO that I enjoy.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I admire their nerve, foolish as it may be.

I expect that forecast-able revenue to be a lot, lot less than Bethesda are hoping for. I don't expect the die hard TES fans are going to pay for it either, not when there's a whole bunch of free mods kicking about for Morrow-blivio-rim (and the dismissive attitude of TES:O's writers has been going down so well with the hardcore). They'll all wait for a 'proper' part six, unless Bethesda pulls a Bioware and declares this to be Elder Scrolls 6 and the new canon, that'll go down a storm...

I really want to meet the person who decided to chase the World of Warcraft market, they must be either very brave or very dumb to go after the dwindling monopoly.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

GW2 has a great model, that doesn't require me to buy more stuff if I don't want too and I don't miss out. They also release new content monthly.

Well, I was slightly interested in TESO before, but I am not anymore after this news.

 

[Grimh]

Man, this all sounds so very... familiar.

Those are nice sentiments I guess, and they were just as nice when the developers of SW:TOR and Secret World held them.

But who knows, third time's the charm?

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

If I had to pay more money for every month I owned Skyrim, I wouldn't own Skyrim.

While I can respect the desire to avoid the f2p micro transaction route, monthly fees add up and end up costing far more than the game is worth.

I'll wait until the f2p version comes out a year after launch.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Dear ESO,

Their are other ways to have a F2P MMO in this day and age. Cosmetic items, boosts to leveling (which isn't selling power, since it just means players will go through the experience faster, it shouldn't effect the balance), mounts, convience, etc.

Unless you your WoW or Eve, you can't survive on subscriptions anymore.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Unless you your WoW or Eve, you can't survive on subscriptions anymore.

Or FF11, it's been chugging along nice and quiet like with a subscription model in the background of all the MMO hullabaloo. Its successor, FF14:ARR, will be following the same model.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Why do they think it either has to be Pay to Play after purchase or Free to Play? Why can't more MMOs adopt the Guild Wars way of doing things and just charge $60 once and be done?

I'm pretty sure on name alone ESO would be successful with just charging $60 and charging for expansions. I can't name a subscription game since WoW or EVE that hasn't gone free to play.

 

[Chessrook44]

So what's wrong with the Guild Wars model then? If you don't want to gate content DON'T GATE CONTENT. Instead, sell services, conveniences, and skins.

 

[ShirowShirow]

I guess I can understand the sentiment. But there's no way I'm ever paying a monthly fee for one game ever again.

Captcha: History repeats itself. Huh. Ominous.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Unless you your WoW or Eve, you can't survive on subscriptions anymore.

Or FF11, it's been chugging along nice and quiet like with a subscription model in the background of all the MMO hullabaloo. Its successor, FF14:ARR, will be following the same model.

The FF MMOs are a bad example of surviving on subscriptions considering they almost destroyed Square Enix. Especially FF14. Even so, WoW, EVE, and FF are the only games to have any success with a subscriber system. Everyone else either went F2P or went bankrupt.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I guess Skyrim wasn't a 'true Elder Scrolls experience' then since I didn't have to pay a monthly subscription. Then again Skyrim wasn't part of the 'real' TES lore according to the TESO loremasters so I guess it doesn't count anyway.

I'll stick with the proper Elder Scrolls games since they have a way better gameplay-to-£ ratio than TESO will with a monthly fee.