During a recent interview with the website Gamestar Matt Firor, General Manager of ZeniMax Online, revealed that The Elder Scrolls Online will use a purely subscription based business model and forego any free-to-play options.
When asked why the the studio has chosen to go with this model, despite more recent games being unable to survive on a subscription based game alone, Firor had this to say;
The Elder Scrolls games are all about allowing the player to go where they want, be who they want, and do what they want. We feel that putting pay gates between the player and content at any point in game ruins that feeling of freedom, and just having one small monthly fee for 100% access to the game fits the IP and the game much better than a system where you have to pay for features and access as you play.
A one month subscription to ESO is going to run players $14.99/€12.99/£8.99, though there will likely be discounts for players who purchase more than one month of gameplay at a time.
How do you feel about ESO being subscription based only? Let us know in the comments below.
I “was” looking forward to ESO.
Now I will not be playing it.
You can now forget My money, I will not pay $15 a month for nothing. I am a college student who is poor, expect most of your fans who are 20-60% of your fan base based off of skyrim purchases to not pay for it either because they are in college! Way to screw yourselves over and lose a lot of money and fans.
Thanks for screwing over one of your best
fans
I’m on the border here. To be honest, I’d like the option to pay for a yearly subscription at a significant discount. (Say $60-75 for the year.)
I’d also like the option to try out the game before I commit to anything. How am I to know the game doesn’t utterly suck? What if I severely need to upgrade my system? I’d have wasted money for nothing.
If these conditions are met, there’s no way I wouldn’t buy the subscription. The Elder Scrolls is by far my favorite game trilogy, and I don’t see why I can’t afford something like this.
To those who complain about not being able to afford ESO due to college, maybe if you dropped the porn subscriptions and afternoon beers, you could pay the mere $15/month.
I do not agree, what I want is for zenimax to not steal my money,I personally think they have become obsessed with the money they have gained to the Elder Scrolls series so they make you pay £55 for the game and £8.99 a month! They need to fix that because it has made me loose interest in buying the game. But I do agree in year subscription but not around £60 I would just leave it as the £55 to start with
15 $ per month is pretty common price, so I’m fine with it. And btw it will keep away F2P hobos and people who’re not really interested in game. Yes, as Dylan already stated, players are in need of trial access too the game, and I’m sure Zenimax gonna grant it. So I’m grand 🙂
P.S : Spent all weekends playing beta, game is amasing.
Let’s be realistic – the 15$ / month is the price of a few pints of beer these days. If you can’t afford it, you’ve got bigger things to concern yourself about then MMOs. Yeah, some people won’t be playing ESO for that reason. However, for the rest of us which are not averse to paying for a service we use, it means a better game overall.