As something that’s come as a shock to virtually no one, Bethesda’s failed MMO based in the Elder Scrolls universe will become free-to-play on PC/Mac as of March 17th. The PS4 and Xbox One version is scheduled (for now) to launch on June 9th, and will be dubbed Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.
As confirmed by Bethesda:
“Beginning June 9th, you can join your friends on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to play The Elder Scrolls Online – Tamriel Unlimited… with no game subscription fees!
Tamriel Unlimited is arriving on PC/Mac, too – beginning on Tuesday, March 17th. To celebrate the announcement, we’ve released The Confrontation, the final chapter in our thrilling series of cinematic trailers. Watch the stunning conclusion and get ready for Tamriel Unlimited!“
As is the case with many MMO’s that ditch their subscription fees for a free-to-play model, Bethesda will offer a premium paid option, called ESO Plus. This grants access to all of their DLC content, as well as increased XP gains, gold, and crafting materials for those of you willing to shell out a monthly cash drop. ESO Plus subscribers will also receive a monthly allotment of crowns to spends at a brand new shop that offers cosmetic and convenience items. Additional crowns will be available for purchase online as a microtransaction. Again, this is all expected from a free-to-play MMO.
This bit of information comes straight from the Playstation Blog:
“Tamriel Unlimited also debuts ESO’s new optional membership package, ESO Plus. With this premium membership service, players will be granted free access to all of the game’s DLC game packs; bonuses to XP, gold, and crafting; and a monthly allotment of Crowns to purchase items from the Crown Store. What’s the Crown Store, you ask? This is an all-new merchant store to ESO full of optional cosmetic and convenience items you can purchase for Crowns, a new currency allowing you to buy content directly from PlayStation Store. You’ll be able to fully enjoy ESO without being a member, but we think you’ll really enjoy the benefits if you have fun playing the game.
Those that don’t enroll in ESO Plus can still expect free patches that implement fixes and other improvements along with optional DLC offerings you can purchase to add more adventures to the already-enormous game.”
Now if they would just make the MMO cross-platform like Final Fantasy XIV, I think they’d be on the right track. Of course that’s not necessarily their fault.
So what’s the what, XBRO’s? Interested in ESO more now that it’s going free-to-play?
(Source: Kotaku)
Bradley Keene is the Executive Editor here at What’s Your Tag?, generally handling reviews, public relations, and our social media communications on Facebook and Twitter. He’s an aspiring video game journalist, Baltimore native, and an aficionado of bizarre indie games. If it’s weird and pixely, he’ll like it. If he’s not writing, he can usually be found glued to his OUYA and Xbox One, or knee-deep in an MMO. Get in touch with him by e-mail at the address above, or follow him on Twitter.
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As much as I love the Elder Scrolls, about the only thing that would get me to give Bethesda more money would be releasing Barnes & Noble Signature Edition style collections of the in-game books. I guess that’s the problem when half the games in your series are free and the other half have a ridiculously low cost-to-play-time ratio…
This was pretty much a given.
Yeah, I’m definitely not surprised. What I played at launch was extremely boring, but I only gave it a few hours of my time. I just piggybacked off my girlfriend’s account, who actually enjoyed it for the first few weeks. I love ES, and hopefully the new changes make it worth playing when it comes out for consoles in June.
With the console release, will the game be cross-platform?
Unfortunately no, it’ll still run on 3 different servers; one for each platform. I think that decision actually fell on to Microsoft, as they’re pretty adamant about using their own servers, rather than sharing… or something along that line.
It’s unfortunate really, as I don’t see either console having large enough a player base to ever make the world seem populated.