MMORPG ESO was once a flop but has now grossed 2 billion

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At the start of the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, things were going bad for the game. A whole bunch of reasons caused the number of players to drop, but an expansion brought about a turning point.

Update: We updated this article on April 14, 2024 at 1:40 p.m. An earlier version of this article named Amazon as the new owner of Zenimax Online Studios, which of course meant Microsoft.

How was the release of ESO? The Elder Scrolls Online was released in 2014 and immediately struggled with problems:

  • The Elder Scrolls was only known to players as a pure single-player brand and was viewed critically by both single-player and MMORPG fans.
  • Some people also compared the game to WoW or wanted it to be the next WoW, even though ESO and WoW have little to do with each other.
  • Weak balancing in which vampires were far too strong, bugs and technical problems as well as an endgame that left a lot to be desired plagued the players.
  • Although versions for the PlayStation and Xbox One were announced, they never came out because there were so many problems with the PC version.
  • The year 2014 was a strong year for MMORPGs, titles like WildStar and ArcheAge appeared back then and made things difficult for ESO.

    • But with an expansion of the game, the number of players doubled from one day to the next.

    Here you can see the trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online – Gold Road.

    The Elder Scrolls Online – Gold Road in the announcement trailer

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    This expansion is the reason for the game’s success

    What expansion is it about? The expansion that brought success to The Elder Scrolls Online is the “Tamriel Unlimited” game pack. At that time, the mandatory subscription was abolished, guild traders came into play and the game went more towards a sandbox in terms of the in-game legal system.

    The CEO of Zenimax Online Studios, the developers behind Elder Scrolls Online, recently said: “Overnight our login population on PC doubled simply because players could come back without taking out a subscription, they could just play […] the following night it doubled again. So we knew we were on the right track.”

    In just two months, the game welcomed 3 million new players and broke the 500,000 player mark across all platforms at the same time.

    How could the success be continued? To ensure that the expansion doesn’t just remain a one-hit wonder, the developers have also put in the work for the subsequent updates. A year after the release of Tamriel Unlimited, there was a major update that allowed players from the three factions to play together.

    CEO Matt Firor said a realization was made: “Do you really care what level you are in GTA or other modern games? No, you just log in, play and have fun. We wanted to make ESO a game like that.” The same update also introduced level scaling.

    What is the success of the game today? The Elder Scrolls Online is still successful today. The celebration is currently underway to mark the game’s 10th birthday. The CEO also revealed that the game probably earned $2 billion over its lifetime. A remarkable number.

    However, since the acquisition of Microsoft, a lot has changed in the corporate structure of Zenimax Online Studios. A former developer says the game’s success is down to one man.

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