Elder Scrolls Online Subscription Removes Gates on Content, Says Bethesda

The Elder Scrolls Online will make use of a traditional MMORPG subscription model. That means that each month, players will be asked to fork over $14.99 to see everything that Bethesda’s packed into this unique world. Games with this style of funding system haven’t had too much success as of late, but according to Bethesda's marketing boss Pete Hines, this fee allows the team to remove any and all gates on the game’s content.

“What's cool about having a subscription model for us, is that firstly we don't have any gates on the content – Elder Scrolls is very much a game about going wherever you want to, and if you're randomly running into artificial [obstacles] where you have to pay, it just doesn't feel right,” Hines told OXM. “The other thing is to do with maintaining a team, that can offer super service and put out content at a very high clip. If you want to do that, you really need to plan for it in advance and also maintain a really large team of people.

“And I think when we say content, we mean substantial, meaningful content. There are lots of different ways to support a game that you can look at. When we say content, we mean meaningful stuff, like new areas of the world, new factions, bigger meatier stuff. Not a couple of new weapons, or some new outfits, though we can do that too! We can do all of that stuff plus a lot more, stuff that's more Elder Scrollsy, and not trivial.”

This isn’t a free-to-play title with loads of microtransactions, and Hines wouldn’t have it any other way.