Gamers that thought you would be able to enjoy the world within the new Elder Scrolls Online for free are going to be disappointed to learn that Matt Firor, General Manager of ZeniMax Online has this week announced their will be a monthly subscription to be paid-to-play.
Zenimax Online has dropped the idea of a free-to-play model and has taken the bold move to charge gamers for entry into their virtual world.
Matt Firor explained a little more about the choice:
“We’re thrilled that gamers are looking forward to diving into The Elder Scrolls Online and we’ve been working hard to deliver the game that fans want – one that’s worthy of the Elder Scrolls name. Choosing the right business model is part of that. We are going with the subscription model for ESO.
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 offers unlimited play for the first 30 days with the purchase of the game. The choice is yours to play as much as you want; hundreds of hours of content, PvP, etc – is all there for you to experience with the base purchase of the game. If you want to continue playing for hundreds of hours more after that first month you’ll pay a flat fee for continued, unlimited access to the game.
We’ll talk about further discounts, etc. later, but for now, we are very happy to finally announce our model. It’s very simple – you pay once per month after the first 30 days and the entire game is available to you. This type of experience is best paired with a one-time fee per month, as opposed to many smaller payments that would probably add up to more than $14.99/month any way.”
For more information on the new Elder Scrolls Online game and the recent interview with Matt Firor jump over to the GameStar website for details.
Source: GameStar : Destructoid