Last week, Zenimax announced that their highly anticipated MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online will feature a $15 monthly subscription after a $60 purchase of the game. The internet–as are wont to do–erupted in cantankerous fury over the announcement, many claiming that the $15/per month price would push them away from an online visit to Tamriel. GM Matt Firor attempted to put out fires early with the following statement, “We’re building a game with the freedom to play – alone or with your friends – as much as you want. A game with meaningful and consistent content – one packed with hundreds of hours of gameplay that can be experienced right away and one that will be supported with premium customer support. Charging a flat monthly (or subscription) fee means that we will offer players the game we set out to make, and the one that fans want to play. Going with any other model meant that we would have to make sacrifices and changes we weren’t willing to make.”
Firor, the rest of the Zenimax team, and Bethesda fight an uphill battle in the world of $15 subscription fees. Most recently, and most publicly, people watched the crash and burn of Star Wars: The Old Republic as EA and Bioware launched the game to critical acclaim, then had the rug pulled out from under them as players left in droves. In order to try and stop the bleeding, The Old Republic went free-to-play less than a year after launch. The Old Republic isn’t alone in their submission to the free-to-play model, DC Universe Online succumbed to free-to-play shortly after their release. Other games like the Guild Wars Franchise and The Secret World have passed on a subscription, just happy to get initial returns off of the purchase. The history of the MMO doesn’t bode well for The Elder Scrolls Online, of all the games to trot out purchase and subscription price tags there is only one success: World of Warcraft. Oh, and that game just happened to be a pop culture phenomenon, so no pressure or anything.
I was skeptical when The Elder Scrolls Online was announced. One of the things I have loved about The Elder Scrolls games, what I imagine most people love about them, is that they are highly immersive experiences. The games give us where everything can be interacted with, where every home and shop is accessible, where every word has weight. People have long said that they wanted to play the Elder Scrolls with friends, so that the immersive experience can be shared, but to accomplish that feat is something no MMO has ever done. World of Warcraft is a social experience, one you share with others, but it doesn’t have the same weight, the same quality that Elder Scroll games have. Somehow Zenimax was going to have to find a blend between the social, long-terms requirements of an MMO, and the subtle, engaging, immersive qualities the Elder Scrolls is known for.
I spent an hour with the game last month and I am looking forward to spending another hour with it at PAX Prime. I have to say from what I’ve seen, The Elder Scrolls Online is very impressive. Its world is still beautiful, (mostly) interactive, and filled with a high quality of writing that one would expect of the single player experiences. The most impressive thing about The Elder Scrolls Online is the size of the world. All of Tamriel is open, from the deserts of Hammerfell to the swamps of Black Marsh, all with the quality one demands of the series. The audience has been uncompromising, demanding the first-person experience synonymous with the previous games, seeking the same level of depth as the previous titles. While, the quality is far from a guarantee, Zenimax is desperately trying to make the game everyone is expecting of them.
The problem is that to make that game, the budget has likely ballooned to the point where a subscription has become a necessity. In order to deliver a true Elder Scrolls game it should have been obvious that the price was going to come at a premium. Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind were expensive in their own right as single player experiences, now the team was going to try and multiply those games into a giant multiplayer world. There was never any way that Zenimax could have pulled this off without the game costing $60 upfront and $15 per month.
There are some larger questions to ask of The Elder Scrolls Online, like what the game’s end game content will consist of, or how will the PvP be supported. These are often the biggest questions when determining the lifespan of an MMO, they are also the largest question marks in Zenimax’s development. Building, supervising, and nurturing a community is what makes MMOs tick, and when your game is looking to instantly catapult itself into the upper echelon of the MMO market, you will need a widespread and hungry community. These variables are things that Zenimax and Bethesda have the least control over. With the lights out sales of Skyrim and the high quality history The Elder Scrolls series has built for itself, the fan base should be able to get the ball rolling, but can it continue, is the big question.
You don’t need to buy The Elder Scrolls Online. We live in a free market where you can determine how much a game is really worth, but if you are an Elder Scrolls fan who has anticipated this game from day one, you had to have known this was coming. If you want an Elder Scrolls MMO with all of the bells and whistles of the single player experience you are going to have to pay for it, because that work does not come cheap. If you want an Elder Scrolls game that is free-to-play, don’t buy the game, watch the sales tank, and then enjoy an endless puke of advertisement and pay-walls, lacking the immersion of a typical Tamriel visit. If you want a free-to-play, high quality Elder Scrolls, then wake up, because this is the real world. The Elder Scrolls needs you $15 subscription to give you an MMO with little compromise, it is up to you if actually want it.
You know what? I was actually downdraught when i heard about the monthly fee, because I’m a college freshman who cant really afford the expense of 15 dollars a month. That said your argument is valid and I’m actually thinking about it again. It doesn’t come out till the spring so I’ll see where my finances are at at the time. So your article has turned me from a no to a fair maybe.