Tag: The Elder Scrolls

Briefly: The Elder Scrolls Online launched in early April to thousands and thousands of eager fans, and Bethesda ensured us at the time that the console version would soon follow.

Not as soon as we’d hoped, apparently, as both the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game have seen a lengthy delay. Here’s the word, straight from Bethesda:

We’ve been grateful to our fans for the wonderful response to our recent launch of The Elder Scrolls Online for PC/Mac, but we know many of you are eagerly waiting to play the game on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

 

We continue to work on the console versions of ESO, and game development has been progressing steadily, but we are still working to solve a series of unique problems specific to those platforms. Integrating our systems with each console manufacturer’s networks — which are both different from the PC/Mac system as well as different from each other-has been a challenging process. It has become clear that our planned June release of the console versions isn’t going to be possible. Though we have made great progress, we have concluded that we’ll need about six months to ensure we deliver the experience our fans expect and deserve.

 

We know that the news of an ESO console delay is as disappointing to many of you as it is to us. We want to do what we can to make it up to our fans who want to start playing now, so we have worked out the following arrangement with Sony and Microsoft:

 

Via a special offer, anyone who purchases and plays the PC/Mac version of The Elder Scrolls Online by the end of June will have the opportunity to transfer their character(s) to either console version when they are released. The offer will allow you to begin playing immediately on the PC/Mac, and then add the PS4 or Xbox One version and transfer the character(s) you have created and developed. And, you don’t have to pay full price for the game twice. For $20, eligible PC and Mac players will have the option to add a full, digital version of ESO on either the PS4 or the Xbox One with your character transfer(s), and another 30 days of included game time.

 

Whether you decide to take advantage of this offer or not, we promise to do everything we can to get the game released on both consoles as quickly as we can. We will keep everyone updated with additional details regarding character transfers, specific offer dates, when you can expect console beta to start, and of course, when ESO on consoles will launch.

 

Thank you for your patience and loyal support.

Briefly: Bethesda has finally announced the long-awaited release date for The Elder Scrolls Online.

The new MMO will launch on April 4th for Windows and OS X (yep, that’s a day one OS X release), while PS4 and Xbox One editions will follow close behind on a yet-to-be-determined date in June.

The game’s director, Matt Firor, offered the following update on the anticipated title:

Greetings everyone. As we are approaching the end of 2013 and heading into our launch year, I thought I’d take a moment to thank you, our community, for your continued support. I’d also like to give you an update on the game’s development and our launch plans for 2014.

 

First, thanks to everyone involved in the ESO community: those we met at trade shows, those of you on social media, and those that have had a chance to play the game and provided invaluable feedback through beta testing. I personally am humbled by the intense feelings of excitement expressed to us by the community at large. At shows like PAX East, PAX Prime, Gamescom, Eurogamer Expo, Paris Games Week, etc. – we always had three to four hour lines to play ESO. We know those wait times weren’t easy, and the great patience and enthusiastic reception you showed was remarkable. Everyone here at ZeniMax Online appreciates each and every one of you and your fantastic support of the game.

 

Game development is coming along very well. We completed major systems development, and are focusing on making this the Elder Scrolls game you expect: polishing the hundreds and hundreds of hours of content, making combat even more fun and responsive, fixing quest issues, and much, much more. In fact, we plan on spending the next few months before launch reacting to the latest feedback from internal and external testers and gameplay data we have collected.

 

As some of you know, we’ve been in beta testing for about a year now, leading up to our most recent test in late November where we had over 300,000 people in the game over a 48 hour period. We’ve had approximately 4 million people sign up for beta and that number continues to grow. We hope that just about every one of you who have signed up for beta will get an invitation to play sometime between now and the weeks before launch. These tests are very important, not only for gameplay feedback, but also to test our infrastructure. Beta tests can sometimes be a little rough when we are testing some systems for the first time with large numbers of players. So thank you to all who have participated for your understanding and support. It is very much appreciated.

 

Worldwide demand for The Elder Scrolls Online is extraordinarily high. This means we need to do a staggered rollout of the different versions of the game to spread out the initial service load and ensure an enjoyable, smooth gameplay experience. It is not only a game we are launching – it is a large online service as well, and our number one priority is to ensure a trouble-free, stable rollout for everyone.

 

We long ago promised that as soon as a version of the game is ready, we will launch it. So we’re happy to announce that the game will launch worldwide for PC and Mac players on Friday, April 4, 2014, while PlayStation 4 and Xbox One fans will see the game arriving on consoles in June 2014.

 

Again, thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm over the past year. We are very proud of this game and excited to share it with you. We can’t wait to see you in the game in 2014! —Matt

To celebrate the launch announcement, Bethesda has also launched an excellent new trailer for the title, showcasing the war in Cyrodiil.

With so many MMO’s launching in the next year (or launching in the past year), which are you playing? Which are you looking forward to? Sound out below!

Briefly: Bethesda has released a new trailer for their upcoming title, The Elder Scrolls Online, showing off the game’s expansive character creation system.

The video features and interview with art director Jared Carr, who takes us through many of the different modification options (there are a lot), and explains just how important it is to give players all of the options possible.

The game didn’t look overly impressive back when over 20 minutes of (now removed) beta footage was leaked online. It’s nice to see that the graphics have improved substantially since then, and hopefully the gameplay remains solid as well. I know that many people were upset when Bethesda revealed that The Elder Scrolls Online would require a monthly subscription fee, but take a look at the new trailer below, and let us know if you’ll still be checking out the game.

The Elder Scrolls Online launches in 2014 for Windows, OS X, Xbox One, and Playstation 4.