In what seems to be a very random decision and without notice, Bethesda, the developer behind Elder Scrolls Online, has removed the six-month subscription option for the game. Gamers can now only subscribe to the game for either 30 or 90 days.
Players on the official site have been trying to understand why Bethesda decided to remove the six-month subscription option. For many, it doesn’t seem like a major issue since they can still play the game, but they’ll just need to resubscribe after three months. Others are upset, claiming that the six-month option helped them save money, and now they’ll have to spend more to enjoy the same game. The French official forum mentions that people usually favor the shorter subscription, but gamers aren’t convinced by that reasoning.
This is a trend observed in MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) in the past. To satisfy long-time subscribers, developers eliminate these options so that players won’t have to pay for 6-month or 12-month subscriptions, only to see the game switch to a free-to-play model.
Elder Scrolls Online hasn’t seen the success Bethesda expected and it’s no secret. Gamers were incredibly excited for the popular Elder Scrolls series to finally make its MMORPG rebut, only to find that doesn’t have the depth that the single player games have. It’s interesting to see how this will play out for the console versions of the game. Currently, Elder Scrolls Online is only available on PC, with the Xbox One and PS4 versions expected to be released early 2015. No release date is confirmed for the console versions, but they have been delayed at least 6 months for fine-tuning.
I’m incredibly optimistic that making The Elder Scrolls Online free to play would be a huge improvement for the game. It’s not that people don’t want to play the game, it’s just that people don’t want to pay to play an imperfect game. Making the game not require a subscription, and to just pay for the initial download/purchase, would at least have people giving the game a chance. Making the game free to play, fixing it up and getting rid of bots, adding content, and finally bringing it over to Xbox One and PS4 will likely at least make the game relevant and give it the grounding it needs to become a success.
Photo Credit: Marco Verch