Elder Scrolls Online Going Free-to-Play on PC/consoles

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Bethesda's online entry in the Elder Scrolls franchise, Elder Scrolls Online, finally has a release date for its Xbox One and PS4 versions: June 9. And along with that announcement, the developer also revealed that the MMO will no longer require a monthly subscription to play.

Now dubbed The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, a press release states that the game will include all of the content from the current game "plus all the updates and content additions, including the exciting new Justice and Champion systems."

The PC version of Tamriel Unlimited will go live on March 17, and current players will be automatically shifted over to the free-to-play world. If you've already purchased the game, you won't need to buy it again. Of course, there's still a benefit for those who want to maintain their paid subscription; ESO Plus is the name of the game's premium service, and it will include: "exclusive in-game bonuses, a monthly allotment of Crowns to use in the store and access to all DLC game packs while a member." Crowns will function as Tamriel Unlimited's premium currency.

As with other online games, Xbox owners will need an active Xbox Live Gold subscription and PlayStation owners will need a PlayStation Plus membership. Bethesda will be discussing the game in more depth at noon ET (9 AM PST) on its Twitch channel.

Rumors were recently circulating recently that the long-running World of Warcraft would also transition to a free-to-play model soon, but Blizzard clarified that that's not the plan for their own MMO quite yet.

Well gives me a reason to try the game now... Never really was interested in it before.... Really I am still not.......

I never returned to ESO after trying the beta. It's not a bad game if you don't have very high expectations because of its Elder Scrolls name. I never put it next to Skyrim, Oblivion and it would be unfair to do so. This is an MMO set in the Elder Scrolls world and that's how people should view it. And in general, while not a bad game, it doesn't seem to excel either. Overall, I had fun with it, no regrets in my time spent with the beta.

Now I am not into MMOs but I always wanted to try one and stick to it just for the sake of it and ESO is the only that could attract me mainly because of its TES lore/background even though there are other MMOs that are superior to ESO as far as mechanics and MMO stuff are concerned.

I would like to get back to it at some point when I'm finished with my backlog so yeah no monthly sub is good news I guess.

Never doubted this would happen ... it was a dumb idea goine dumber as it came closer and closer to release ... and then got the bad outcries it deserved.

If I had payed for the game and it's subscription I'd be expecting a hell of a lot more from the devs then what they listed. Hell free mounts armors etc..etc.. should be given to anyone who bought and payed for what is now a 90% free game.

I played ESO for a couple of months and thought it was a pretty fun game. Although, it feels less like an MMO and more like as single player RPG to me.

That said I think the people that still enjoy subscription based MMO's prefer them over F2P or B2P because they feel that the subscription helps weed out trolls and what not. So, I can understand why some people still playing are kind of upset. However, towards the end of my time playing it seemed like there were less and less people on and a couple of guilds I had been apart of (large merchant guilds) were ghost towns.

This was probably a smart move on the Dev's part considering the upcoming console launches. Their likely to get more people to try it out and possibly send them some money...and their people already subscribing have some incentives to continue subscribing.

Personally I am happy to hear this news because I would like to still play ESO from time to time but I did not feel like I played enough to pay a sub fee.

Well if they were going to release on consoles, console players already pay a subscription to play online per month, so adding another sub on top of that wouldn't have worked.

Hence why they needed to remove the sub on the PC version as well.

I don't mind since now I can probably play it, but hopefully it doesn't ruin the game.

EDIT: just read the ESO forums. Look at all the Nerd Rage with people already quitting. What a bunch of tossers.

They didnt quit because the game sucked from day one? Impressive.

Personal Opinion.

Lots of people still play to this day and think it's an ok game, especially with the latest updates and the upcoming ones (making it more Skyrim like).

(I don't play ESO btw).

I can kind of understand why the loyal eso fans are irritated. They have been paying a monthly charge for a while now and now that the console versions are coming out it goes free to play? I don't know...if I were a subscriber that might irritate me as well.

Well these days with MMOs you have to be prepared for the payment plan to change at any time. More so with something multiplatform like ESO.

Saying that, it's just dumb to quit all of a sudden because it goes F2P. They don't even know how it's going to affect the game (negative or positive).

Lots of other MMOs have changed their payment plans and have come out just fine.

Nobody saw this coming. Shocking!

I do understand why people would quit. For the most part, I stopped playing LotRO when it went f2p. It started slowly but going f2p eventually changed the game and how it was being designed. Turbine started looking for more and more ways to monetize every aspect of the game. In the post-f2p expansions you can see its influence on the game's design. When your business depends on micro-transactions to support it you really NEED people to buy them, so you make them very desirable, and in some cases, very necessary or convenient (a.k.a. Pay2Win).

It was also kind of annoying that they started selling rare and somewhat unique items. Things people had put effort and time into obtaining could now be had for a few dollars and a couple mouse clicks. It just sort of cheapened the whole experience for me.

how exactly it's free to play, when you have to pay €55 for standard edition and €80 for imperial edition? ESO is not free to play, but buy to play. and imperial race available only on imperial edition is ubber BS, and has to be removed right now from there and added to standard edition

That makes no sense... what about FF14?

You pay Electricity and ISP as well you know... thats just a silly technicality.

Its free2play for one reason alone, because its bad. and its failing.

i might try it out

Why did you revive a dead thread?

Please don't bump old threads.

-Byshop