Big changes are coming to The Elder Scrolls Online in 2023. Studio Director Matt Firor announced in the latest Studio Director’s Letter that ESO is moving away from year-long story arcs, and that the studio will shift its focus during 2023 to implement a new system and introduce bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
Given the above, 2023 will see us moving away from the “Year Long Adventure” 12-month storylines that we have featured since 2019’s Season of the Dragon. I think these have run their course and frees us up to do some new and interesting content that we’ve been wanting to do for a few years now—and lets us return to expansive story arcs that unfold over multiple Chapters. This year-long strategy was a huge success and raised the profile of ESO, but now after four straight years, we’re finding more and more that this cadence limits what we can do.
Q1 of 2022 will still be similar to what ESO players are used to, with a new content-focused DLC introducing a new dungeon.
Q2 will introduce a new chapter. The big difference this time around is that the whole chapter will be fully playable at release “without a storyline that is broken out and reserved for later in the year.”
Q3 will be fully dedicated to fixing bugs and introducing quality-of-life fixes, and in Q4 of 2023 a brand new system will be introduced to the game. More information about the system is set to be released during the Global Reveal Event in early 2023.
It will be an exciting year for ESO fans and with the shift in focus, players can look forward to an updated experience and new content to explore that won’t tie them down for the whole year. Keep your eyes peeled for more details as the ESO team reveals its plans over the coming months!
Another interesting tidbit of information in the letter was that ESO had during 2022 welcomed millions of new players to the game with the introduction of the Spanish and Simplified Chinese localizations.
What are your thoughts on the planned changes for the Elder Scrolls Online? Is this a welcomed change or do you want to keep the year-long adventures? Let us know in the comments! We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Miguel Cura
Wednesday 4th of January 2023
My humble opinion:
1. I was able to master the weaving, but it really sucks to play like this, it feels unnatural. It feels very mechanized and repetitive. Also, weaving is very sensitive to latency, which brings us to the next point... 2. The servers work very poorly, very unstable. 3. The client crash very often a lot of people. 4. Group combat is full of Flashes everywhere between set effects, and bosses. 5. There are no search engines to group in trials. 6. There are no new classes, not even new skill lines for a long time. 7. Hybridization seems good, but it cut the variety of builds in half. (If you don't play META, well this may not be a problem, but surely you will play ALONE and if it is a problem for the rest.) 8. Understanding, seeing and following the buffs and debuffs is a very difficult task. It improves with addons but the interface is not as clear as other mmo. 9. The horizontal progression is very good, it is the strong point vs wow, but the solo game is too easy and does not give rewards that motivate you to play it. I connected only when I had to do things in a group. 10. There is no clear guide on the mechanics of the fights. Not even the slightest explanation. All this scares newbies away or just makes them play a "solo skyrim"
These basic things are in WoW for example. If they are not fulfilled, do not expect that they will ever come close to 20% of the people who are there. At first the excitement of the game leads one to "endure these shortcomings" but there comes a time when one just wants to play and have fun. Surely I will not stop playing, I have paid the Plus for several more months but it really is time to fix things I think.
Denise Holman
Tuesday 13th of December 2022
We need new servers the game is so laggy especially in PvP so many people have left the game because of this PLEASE fix this