The Elder Scrolls Online Will Have Subscription Fees

[StewShearerOld]

The Elder Scrolls Online Will Have Subscription Fees

The Elder Scrolls Online will charge $14.99 a month for unlimited use.

If you're anything like us then you're probably excited for The Elder Scrolls Online. The game thus far has looked very much <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/10506-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Hands-On-Preview>accessible for both fans of single and multiplayer, granting it a flexibility that will likely come in handy for the task of roping in gamers used to an Elder Scrolls universe made for them and them alone. One element that might not be as helpful in attracting gaming loners however, are recently confirmed subscription fees players will need to pay if they want unlimited access to the game.

It's an interesting move on the part of Bethesda and ZeniMax Online Studios, especially in the light of other <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118818-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Goes-Free-to-Play>recent big name MMOs failing to gain the traction needed to maintain subscription based services. That being the case, the game's developers believe it to be the best fit for The Elder Scrolls. "The Elder Scrolls Online was designed and developed to be a premium experience," said Matt Firor, general manager of ZeniMax Online. "Hundreds of hours of gameplay, tons of depth and features, professional customer support - and a commitment to have ongoing content at regular intervals after launch. This type of experience is best paired with a one-time fee per month, as opposed to many smaller payments." Firor also suggested that players will be "appreciate not having to worry about being 'monetized' in the middle of playing the game."

According to Firor, the current plan is to charge a monthly fee of $14.99, or the equivalent amount depending on a player's region. In return the developers plan to offer consistent premium updates that add new quests, zones, skills, dungeons and overall content after the game launches. Whether or not this will be enough to hold onto gamers' wallets, however, is the emergent question. In turn, we're curious as to what our readers think. Are you up for a monthly fee, or will you be sticking to the Elder Scrolls offline?

Source: <a href=http://m.gamestar.de/artikel/the-elder-scrolls-online,3026853.html>GameStar


Permalink

 

[TheComfyChair]

God dammit Bethesda!

You're competing with GW2, a game which offer more updates and more content every month than any other MMO, doesn't have a sub at all, and is by all accounts is doing pretty well for itself.

If you want to shoot yourself in the foot with a .50 cal, at least do it with a less potentially interesting MMO.

 

[suitepee7]

so around £10 a month? i appreciate that they aren't going with a f2p model, but that's a pretty steep price point unless they do offers for like £7-8 for 3 months if you buy all at once

 

[Legion]

If you're anything like us then you're probably excited for The Elder Scrolls Online.

Well I was interested.

In turn, we're curious as to what our readers think. Are you up for a monthly fee, or will you be sticking to the Elder Scrolls offline?

For me to spend a monthly fee I'd have to absolutely love the game and to be honest, while I did really like Skyrim, I am not particularly interested in MMO's in general. My interest was because of the series not the type of game. So I sincerely doubt I will be playing it now, unless I hear it is so amazing I'd be missing out on the game of the year.

Which I really doubt will be the case. I am not upset with them for going in this direction, I am not against subscription fees as a method, but it doesn't look like it will be a game for me.

 

[VanBasten]

Subscription MMOs are dead and they should stay dead.

 

[mad825]

God dammit ZeniMax!

Fixed.

Trying hard enough to be a Wow clone huh? If I'm correct (UK here), $14.99 is the same for Wow.

 

[Makabriel]

Play a game without having to pay separate for bank space? Or anything extra? Yes please.

 

[Warlokk]

Well, there goes my interest... subs are why I've avoided MMO's to this point, nothing so amazing here to change my mind.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Aaaaaaaaaaand I'm out.

Would've been interested if it was a one-off purchase, or free-to-play, but I just can't be fucked with subscription fee MMOs

 

[Jumwa]

The game seems to be more like a sequel to Dark Ages of Camelot than an Elder Scrolls MMO. Their forcing a rigid faction system onto the ES universe never fit right with me, and was pretty much the only thing (other than perma-death) that could've turned me off an Elder Scrolls MMO.

Adding a subscription fee is just another reason not to give a crap for me, when I didn't need it.

 

[endtherapture]

I don't care about TESO any more personally. With UK game prices, you'll pay £30 for the game initially, and then 1 free month, and then the next 11 months will cost £99. So your first year of play is £129, and then subsequent years will cost £108, plus the cost of expansions/DLC which they will inevitably sell, despite the sub fee being apparently for them to "develop content". That's just too much money to justify playing a game.

God dammit Bethesda!

You're competing with GW2, a game which offer more updates and more content every month than any other MMO, doesn't have a sub at all, and is by all accounts is doing pretty well for itself.

If you want to shoot yourself in the foot with a .50 cal, at least do it with a less potentially interesting MMO.

Adding a couple of quests does not equate to adding a lot of content. They are small bite-sized updates with the occasional large one that could be completed within two hours at most.

Also, "doing well" depends entirely on the person. Does it have a lot of people who bought the game? Yes. However, how many routinely play the actual game? I know I go on at most once every two months, most of my friends even longer between log ins and my guild of 200 is the same as me.

Subscriptions make more money in the long run, go read Yoshida's statement on the whole thing.

My GW2 server is pretty crowded most of the time. I love how they're giving people a reason to come back and place the game every 2 weeks to see the living story.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I just linked the article to a friend.
Let's just say he's not taking it well...
Honestly, I don't blame him, it's not like subscription-based MMOs are doing too well, lately, and we're students, so it's not like cash is something we have enough of. Shame too; he was really looking forward to it, and now he's starting a shitstorm over on Facebook.

 

[endtherapture]

Look at this picture:

Do those sound like the words of a man that has any respect what so ever for the franchise he is working with?

These people have nothing to do with the original franchise and they have the fucking balls to say that what they are making is the "real" version.

I could list the near endless betrayals of the story and lore that this game does, and I could spend hours explaining how all these changes are only being made because the people making the game are lazy and have no creative spirit and because a generic boring fantasy world is easier to market to the drooling masses.

But it's all moot, the only thing that matters is that these people don't respect or care about the franchise they're working with.

Sorry to go all fanboy on you here, but it just annoys me a tiny little bit when something I really care about is handed to a bunch of hacks that clearly don't.

I hope Sajuuk see's this post and elaborates upon it!

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm out.


It's 2013, the only MMO that can even get away with charging a subscription fee is WoW.

Nobody wants to do that any more, nobody wants to fork out X amount of money per month.

 

[Brother Pain]

This is good news. Most games that have gone to F2P have so many pay gates at different content, be it customization, accessing your in-game cash, respeccing, basic content, or just levelling at a normal rate. Also, many F2P games basically only get new payed content.

Having a subscription allows me to put money down on a monthly basis and not worry about every little feature in the game nickle-and-diming me. I can accomplish stuff in the game without it being completely obscured by a cash shop.

Also, I think I read that the monthly price would not convert to euro and pounds 1:1, but I can't find any confirmation of that. It'd be nice if everyone outside the US wouldn't be price gouged for once.

EDIT: And I found the confirmation about halfway down the page: http://m.gamestar.de/artikel/the-elder-scrolls-online,3026853.html

"Since you've been so forthcoming, could you also reveal the available subscriptions? How much will a month of ESO cost?"

"We'll go into details on this later, but the basic monthly charge will be $14.99/?12.99/£8.99 and expect some discounts if you buy multiple months at a time. We'll also support game time cards as well as a variety of payment methods."

 

[Doom972]

Well that killed the little bit of interest I had in this game. I know that it'll be F2P/P2P within a year, but I'll probably lose interest in it by then, as I did with TOR.

I'll just wait patiently for TES VI.