Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Online Studios have revealed that their upcoming MMO ‘The Elder Scrolls Online‘ will require a monthly fee of $15 to play.
This monthly fee is in addition to the $60 that gamers will have to spend for the game itself, causing some excited Elder Scrolls fans to quickly shy away from the upcoming MMO. Matt Firror, general manager of ZeniMax Online Studios, had the following to say about the announcement:
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.
‘The Elder Scrolls Online’ will allow players unlimited access for 30 days after purchasing and activating their game, after which the monthly fee will kick in. The real question is whether or not gamers will want to pay it. The recent (and quite sudden) rise of free-to-play games has seen many popular MMO’s struggle to maintain paid subscriptions. A few of the more recent titles such as ‘Tera’ and ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ adapted a free-to-play model only months after release, while MMO mega-giant ‘World of Warcraft’ continued to lose subscribers and eventually allowed gamers to play up to level 20 for free.
Whether or not ‘The Elder Scrolls Online’ is successful or not depends on the game delivering the same quality experience we’ve come to expect from Bethesda, while giving us a reason to want to pay each month to play. After all, there are still plenty of things to do in ‘Skyrim.’
‘The Elder Scrolls Online’ is set for a Spring 2014 release on PC, Mac, PS4, and Xbxo 360.
Source: Gamestar
