According to an interview with German site GameStar, The Elder Scrolls Online will be a subscription service, bucking the trend for new massively multiplayer online games to be ‘free to play.’
General Manager of ZeniMax Online Matt Firor told the site that in his opinion, the free to play model wouldn’t allow them to make the game they wanted. A monthly subscription, like World of Warcraft, means players will have ‘the entire game available’ to them. Bethesda clearly feel that free to play would spoil the feeling of freedom that they want players to feel in The Elder Scrolls Online.
The Elder Scrolls Online will be free (after purchase) for 30 days, and then a monthly subscription will be required to continue. Firor argues that this means players won’t have to ‘worry about which parts of the game to pay for’ as they will have it all.
Firor’s remarks do make sense, and the free to play model has often been abused by developers trying to squeeze money out of gamers, at the expense of enjoyable gameplay. However, there are examples of games, like Tribes: Ascend that get that model right, while many popular online games with monthly subscriptions are suffering.
Is The Elder Scrolls Online a big enough name to make a success out of the subscription model?
The world of MMORPGs is highly competitive, and The Elder Scrolls Online will have to be a great game to stand out and make gamers want to invest in it.
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We’ll have more on The Elder Scrolls Online from Gamescom 2013 soon.
[Source: GameStar]
