The Elder Scrolls Online is changing as ZeniMax Online Studios moves the MMO further away from its old annual DLC formula toward new content drops that incorporate a greater variety of playstyles – a "renaissance" of sorts, if you will.
It's no secret that The Elder Scrolls Online has suffered a difficult year following Microsoft's plan to cut over 3,200 employees at Xbox, with Bethesda's union representatives reporting a loss of "dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers." Its remaining developers are pushing on with work on the MMO, however, with game director Nick Giacomini having said that it's "here to stay" with extra help from Bethesda along the way.
As work carries on, the game is making a move away from its usual yearly expansion release, bringing a new season system to The Elder Scrolls Online with less combat-focused content. I got to sit down with Giacomini and discuss this path forward myself, which he describes as a "renaissance" for the MMO "where we took a look at this game that's been going for 12 years and decided to make some changes."
It hasn't come "just for the sake of making changes, but because it was something the players were asking of us," as Giacomini says. Folks wanted the devs "to excite them" and "surprise them again" – something that was lost in the old "formula," so to speak. That's why "breaking that formula was really important for us to excite our players." How, though? Seasons, sure, but also new types of content like the Nowhere Vault, Rumors, and High Seas of Tamriel.
"Games haven't stood still," after all. "New games have come out. Great games have come out. That's raised the bar of expectations for players." That led to ZeniMax having to "evolve and revise our own design ethos," and it's a welcome change, in my opinion. Some more chaotic Morrowind-esque exploration, brain-scratching puzzles, and community events slot nicely into Tamriel, helping gap the bridge between expansions.
Because, you know – even though the studio is trying a new path, it's not entirely abandoning everything we've grown to love the MMO for. Associate design director Jason Barnes tells me as much, alluding to the mysterious return to Skyrim that ZeniMax is cooking. "There's still a time and a place for some of the like kind of the bigger, more grand type of releases," as he says – "like the new Skyrim zone that we're working on."
That, Barnes describes, won't be "a return to form" entirely as "it's definitely not the same as our traditional zones" – but "it's going to be that kind of spectacle that the chapter model essentially gave us." Honestly, I'm personally thrilled they're retaining a bit of ye olde Elder Scrolls Online goodness, while also making room for something fresh… and it's already upon us. Heck, we just got Update 51 and the High Seas of Tamriel.
I'm ready for more, and I'm equally as ready for more Skyrim – whatever form it might take.
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