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[Men_in_Boxes]

The Elder Scrolls Online

"In an interview with GamesRadar+, studio director Matt Firor says that the $2 billion figure, which was announced at GDC last month, was revealed "mostly to shine a light on the game." That's because, in Firor's opinion, "ESO isn't often talked about as one of the successful live service games. But it is, it very much is on just about every level."

Now this is the interesting part...

The Elder Scrolls Online rarely cracked 20k average players on Steam in its 10 year history.

Hopefully this helps put recent industry developments in perspective for some of you.

After making $2 billion in 10 years, The Elder Scrolls Online's director wants you to know that the MMO is definitely "one of the successful live service games"

Don't bet against ESO

www.gamesradar.com

 

[rodrigolfp]

The Elder Scrolls Online rarely cracked 20k average players on Steam in its 10 year history.

Maybe because it has its own standalone launcher.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Maybe because it has its own standalone launcher.

This, It required a sub when it launched with it's own launcher, I never played on steam, I eventually moved my character and progression over to the PS4 then back to PC when they dropped the Sub. It's been awhile since I played but the game was very popular back in 2016 or there abouts.

 

[adamsapple]

The Elder Scrolls Online rarely cracked 20k average players on Steam in its 10 year history.

Dear PC gamers, ya know there's more to it than just Steam right?

 

[Guilty_AI]

Dear PC gamers, ya know there's more to it than just Steam right?

Don't lump me with some guy in a box

 

[Guilty_AI]

Hopefully this helps put recent industry developments in perspective for some of you.

So, 2 billion dollars in user spending (not even net revenue) over a period of 10 years, 6 major expansions along plenty of minor ones, among other expenses like server costs, maintanance, etc.... its probably not bad, but this doesn't exactly demonstrates your point as you think it does.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

So, 2 billion dollars in user spending (not even net revenue) over a period of 10 years, 6 major expansions along plenty of minor ones, among other expenses like server costs, maintanance, etc.... its probably not bad, but this doesn't exactly demonstrates your point as you think it does.

 

[SirKicksalot]

It's a great game for Tamriel tourism.
Has a suspicious lack of Hammerfell content.

 

[Guilty_AI]

For reference, Baldurs gate 3 probably already made more than half that in less than a year.

 

[Rockman33]

People really are obsessed with steam numbers. It is obviously an indicator, but not necessarily THEY indicator. Especially when a game launches on Gamepass or is free on EGS.

 

[March Climber]

Now this is the interesting part...

The Elder Scrolls Online rarely cracked 20k average players on Steam in its 10 year history.

You need to re-evaluate your stats and also recognize how many platforms ESO is on. ESO has consistently been in the top 10 MMOs played for the past 7 years, and it has broke top 5 in player count on multiple occasions averaging around 400k daily below WoW Classic. For a game that has had good content and a strong playerbase for 10 years, it is deserving of it's spot.

This should be a celebration thread, but it feels like you're using it as an argument tentpole based on bad data.

It's a great game for Tamriel tourism.
Has a suspicious lack of Hammerfell content.

I think they will get there. I think their new end goal is giving the entire planet content.

 

[Gaiff]

Maybe because it has its own standalone launcher.

Didn't even know it was available on Steam. Always played it from the exe from Bethesda's website.

 

[LectureMaster]

It's actually very impressive. But back to the your point, ESO succeeds because it is a good game, not because it's operation mode. There were many MMOs that failed during those ten years.

I'm all on board for some high quality and well-implemented GaaS but to begin with they need to be good games in the first place.

 

[xBlueStonex]

Game needs a huge update. The animations are still janky as all hell (the running animations especially), the class system still doesn't make any sense, and the damage scaling is super confusing. Why am I doing 3000 damage as a level 1? Literally kills my desire to play.

 

[Comandr]

The game died for me when they introduced level scaling. Completely killed any sense of progression for me.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

For reference, Baldurs gate 3 probably already made more than half that in less than a year.

BG3 was/is...

1. Waaaaay more expensive to launch.
2. Considered waaaaay better in class.
3. Generating less revenue than ESO today.

 

[Meicyn]

ESO combat is flat out awful. It’s a full on action RPG but manages to feel less satisfying than DC Universe Online when it comes to fighting. Swinging a two handed sword feels like you’re wielding a wiffle ball bat.

Kudos to their success I suppose, but getting combat right is critical for an online multiplayer action game.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Played this for like 200 hours a couple years ago, got it on sale for $6, one of the best purchases I ever made.
Fun, relaxing, good music, chill exploring, TES gameplay. Played in first person ( even tho 3rd person with the camera pulled all the way back is the “best” way to play) and treated it like Skyrim 2.0.
Every once in a while I get the itch to reinstall. If only there was more time in the day.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I enjoyed my time with it. I’ve probably put $200 into this game/service.

 

[Gen.Grievous]

Fortnite does that every quarter. Insane how much money these type of games generate. I like the elder scrolls for it's singleplayer content. Only ever played competitive shooters with other people.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

I put some time into it, but it's not really for me.
The level scaling kills all excitement of character progression for me. Every area is the same (low) difficulty, no matter where your character is at build-wise. I think I died like once in my 50 hours or so.
It's just boring.

But I'll say it is a high-quality game if you just wanna relax and zone out, and the MTX don't seem too egregious. So good on them, I guess.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I've dipped in and out of the game previously and played it on all platforms. I usually get to around level 20 before dropping it and going to something else.

However, I picked it up on sale last week through Steam with all expansions and am following a build guide. It's a really chill game to be honest and playing it on Steam Deck is awesome. Definitely don't give a flying fuck about the story at the moment but I'm enjoying the setting and levelling up. Might even boot up a couple of audio books that I can listen to whilst playing.

 

[AV]

The clock is broken on this one

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I've tried multiple times to get into ESO, but I just couldn't stick with it. :/

 

[Freeman76]

I dont know why i dont like this game. I love MMOS and also Elder Scrolls...baffles me how this isnt my favourite game ever but just doesnt work for me

 

[Laptop1991]

I didn't like ESO when it first came out and i still don't, i thought it was a completely inferior Elder Scroll game compared to the SP games just made to make money and it seems i was right back then and one of the reasons we are still years away from TES 6, Zenimax's and Bethesda's GTA online.

 

[Mithos]

This, It required a sub when it launched with it's own launcher, I never played on steam, I eventually moved my character and progression over to the PS4 then back to PC when they dropped the Sub. It's been awhile since I played but the game was very popular back in 2016 or there abouts.

I wish they would allow this ALWAYS, I got ESO as my very FIRST PS4 game even before** I got a PS4 Pro (**by one week, was a big sale). However all friends play it on PC, and I have no interest to restart from zero on PC so....

 

[Mephisto40]

I've played this a ton, like over 2000 hours since launch, and I'm not surprised how much money it's generated considering how small the odd's of getting something good in the loot crates you can buy are

They are pretty much the most predatory look boxes I've seen in a game

And yes I've bought some of them myself...

 

[bitbydeath]

Must cost a lot to run them as well since they were struggling to make money.

 

[Guilty_AI]

BG3 was/is...

1. Waaaaay more expensive to launch.
2. Considered waaaaay better in class.
3. Generating less revenue than ESO today.

Do you think ESO is some cheap indie game? MMOs are very expensive to make, ESO has been estimated to cost $200 million for the release alone.

 

[Outlier]

Good for them and yikes!

I'm happy MMOs are not for me. Saved me tons of money.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

The Elder Scrolls Online rarely cracked 20k average players on Steam in its 10 year history.

Doesn't it have its own launcher?

For reference, Baldurs gate 3 probably already made more than half that in less than a year.

It is a consumer spend aka MTX, addons et.c

 

[Scotty W]

What an L! Only 2 billion? Roflcopter!

 

[Mephisto40]

Doesn't it have its own launcher?

20k concurrent players is actually much higher than most MMO's on steam get, even final fantasy 14 barely pulls above that number and only when eastern countries are awake

People really underestimate how popular ESO actually is in the grand scheme of things

 

[dorkimoe]

I played this YEARS ago, thought about starting again, really craving a good MMORPG

 

[rodrigolfp]

20k concurrent players is actually much higher than most MMO's on steam get, even final fantasy 14 barely pulls above that number and only when eastern countries are awake

People really underestimate how popular ESO actually is in the grand scheme of things

FF 14 also has its own launcher.

 

[King Dazzar]

I only ever tried this once, years ago. But the combat was bland and without any sense of satisfaction. I wanted more Skyrim and instead got something with Elder Scrolls on the tin, but lacking any heart or soul.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I played this YEARS ago, thought about starting again, really craving a good MMORPG

The main issue with TESO for me is the combat. The game itself is quite good.

 

[March Climber]

Game needs a huge update. The animations are still janky as all hell (the running animations especially), the class system still doesn't make any sense, and the damage scaling is super confusing. Why am I doing 3000 damage as a level 1? Literally kills my desire to play.

I didn't like ESO when it first came out and i still don't, i thought it was a completely inferior Elder Scroll game compared to the SP games

I dont know why i dont like this game. I love MMOS and also Elder Scrolls...baffles me how this isnt my favourite game ever but just doesnt work for me

The main issue with TESO for me is the combat. The game itself is quite good.

I only ever tried this once, years ago. But the combat was bland and without any sense of satisfaction. I wanted more Skyrim

I i was overwhelmed with the crafting and all that. Combat was meh yeah. Wish they’d re engine this game

The game that is ESO, is already solidified at this point. ZOS (the dev team) is aware of the biggest/most common complaints(like combat feel) and they will be addressing them with their next game. They are confirmed working on it but haven’t revealed it yet.

A lot of their choices with ESO mirrored Guild Wars 1 in approach. Things like a set number of skills, Builds/loadouts, solo friendly with NPC helper(s), and being able to start a new character at the expansion(or travel straight there with an old one), which meant they chose level scaling as a solution much like how GW1 decided to have a level cap at 20 and focus more on battle strategies rather than the leveling experience itself.

 

[Bond007]

Never was for me- but i tried and contributed early on.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

The game that is ESO, is already solidified at this point. ZOS (the dev team) is aware of the biggest/most common complaints(like combat feel) and they will be addressing them with their next game. They are confirmed working on it but haven’t revealed it yet.

Well if depends if the next game is shooter or not. Though I am not sure if we have space for another big MMO at this point.

 

[dorkimoe]

The main issue with TESO for me is the combat. The game itself is quite good.

I i was overwhelmed with the crafting and all that. Combat was meh yeah. Wish they’d re engine this game

 

[March Climber]

Well if depends if the next game is shooter or not. Though I am not sure if we have space for another big MMO at this point.

My guess is that it’s another melee game(to not compete with FO76), but this time with the melee feeling much more like what people wanted.

I personally don’t think ESO combat is bad, it’s actually quite fun when messing around with builds much like GW1, but it’s definitely not what the average Oblivion/Skyrim fan expects when first starting it and that’s the issue.

If the next game fixes that base pillar, I think it has potential to be received much better from newcomers.

 

[j0hnnix]

Dear PC gamers, ya know there's more to it than just Steam right?

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I personally don’t think ESO combat is bad, it’s actually quite fun when messing around with builds much like GW1, but it’s definitely not what the average Oblivion/Skyrim fan expects when first starting it and that’s the issue.

The issue with ESO combat is that it lacks...weight. It is like all those third person MMOs but in the first person.

 

[UltimaKilo]

The game was OK. To be fair, I don’t think I put 20 hours into it. I felt as if there was really no reason to ever join a party and the game could be entirely played solo, which negated the MMO aspect.

I did think that this would have been the perfect MMO game for VR!

 

[MiguelItUp]

ESO is one of those things where I didn't think it was hot or popular at all. But then over the years they kept adding content. So, it was clear there was a market for it, I just never investigated to see exactly how populated it was. Therefore I had no clue and was only left with assumptions. So seeing this isn't TOO surprising, while also being very surprising, lol.

 

[March Climber]

The issue with ESO combat is that it lacks...weight. It is like all those third person MMOs but in the first person.

The way I see it is that certain technologies, especially regarding netcode, latency, etc. had to catch up to what gamers actually wanted and when ESO was revealed we weren’t quite ready for full-on action combat in massive online worlds. The engine they used definitely wasn’t built for it, but does a great job in other aspects.

People can try to say ‘well what about TERA or BDO?’, but to those people I’d ask ‘do either of those games actually feel as responsive and weighty as single player action games? I mean hell, do they even approach instanced games like Vindictus? I think the answer is a hard no.

There are some new MMOs on the horizon, some emulating the old ways, others going for something new, more responsive, and more visceral. I’m excited for the latter. We will see how they fare when they come out.

For now though, I’ve accepted ESO for what it is and have fun with it. It is a 2014 game that gruelingly fought it’s way near the top next to WoW and FFXIV against all odds and a bad launch, managing to find it’s own lane and fanbase, and that’s something to be respected.

The dream of more action-oriented, more responsive MMOs is at our doorstep. The Dune game is looking good, Dungeon Fighter Online 2 looks good, that one Soulslike MMO (Chronobreak?) looks good, and Ashes of Creation looks good. It’s just a matter of when.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

so?

 

[Bernkastel]

Zenimax Online is already working on their next MMO project

News - Zenimax Online Studios is working on a new IP with a brand new engine

It was actually known for a while and has supposedly been a thing since 2018, but its great to see more official confirmation from the Lead Graphics Engineer.

www.neogaf.com