Next year, The Elder Scrolls Online is going to change radically. It’s all about the size, quality, and frequency of new content — big annual chapters are being replaced by shorter seasons, and gameplay will change too.
In a major announcement at the end of the year, ZeniMax Online Studio Director Matt Firor reports that Elder Scrolls Online will no longer offer large annual chapters that have been a staple of the game’s development since they were first introduced with the release of Morrowind in 2017. The MMO is shifting to a structure of seasonal updates — smaller-scale releases will occur several times a year.
In 2025, players can expect seasons lasting three or six months with a mix of thematic story content, events, store items, dungeons, and more. Seasons will have names and themes, similar to many modern service games. Matt Firor says there will still be “some bigger things” the studio will work on over the year, but everything will be different.
“Freeing up the development team from the need to adhere to a strict annual cycle means we can allow teams to launch content when it’s ready, throughout the year, rather than working towards a June deadline. This will allow us to focus on a greater variety of content, spread throughout the year. It supports the new Seasons model and will enable us to release content, updates, fixes, and systems more efficiently.”
While it’s tough to see these changes as anything but a downsizing, Firor also detailed some significant changes aimed at addressing various issues. First and foremost, he says the studio needs to “experiment more, shake things up, and not be so predictable.”
Going forward, ESO will begin testing new experimental content, specifically marked in the patch notes:
“These systems and ideas will be clearly marked as ‘experiments’ in the patch notes and are ideas that might be developed into a full-fledged game system, or they might not be. With our new focus on breaking content into seasons and moving away from years, this gives us time to conduct these experiments and changes.”
The Zenimax director says developers need to seriously consider the performance of the Cyrodiil region — a long-standing unresolved issue. Specifically, as an experiment, the PvP zone will receive PvP-specific (and more effective) skills for all classes to replace standard character skills to attract more players.
In some places, the standard difficulty of battles will be increased, as well as improving the “overall feel of combat” through animations, effects, and sounds. The studio plans to add more zones like Craglorn, although not as large, designed for group play and proportional rewards. Managing and interacting with the guild will become easier and more intuitive. It will be easier for newcomers to navigate:
“It’s high time we addressed both new and returning ESO users. The game is so large at this point that we need to enhance the new user experience. Our goal is to protect new players from being overwhelmed by dozens of different types of content offered to them upon entering the world, and instead give them essential gameplay guidance before opening up all the possibilities. Additionally, we have millions of players who return to the game every year after a few months or years away – and they are often confused about what to do. We need to solve this issue and ensure that the game map and other quest details and information interfaces clearly show the user where they were when they left, what has been added since then, and where they will find content they enjoy.”
The original tutorial level Wailing Prison, from which all new players currently start, will be regularly adjusted to improve the experience. Basic game zones will be visually enhanced. New players will see fewer markers that could distract from the main quest and cause them to switch to side quests. These changes are planned for March. The map and interface will change to be more newcomer-friendly and helpful for those returning after a long break. Overall, the interface will be modernized to match current times.
ESO will continue to tell new stories in content updates, but will no longer add large new zones. At least not for now. Instead, the game will focus on “bringing back familiar characters” and new stories “centered on well-known Elder Scrolls organizations like the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild.”
On one hand, many enjoy the chapters and new large regions every year, and it’s uncertain how the new seasons will turn out. On the other, some gameplay changes and optimizations have been long overdue, and as a player who hasn’t logged into Elder Scrolls Online for two years, the author of this news seems less likely to get lost or miss out in the future.
Sources: Zemimax, GamesRadar
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