How much will elder scrolls online cost?

Ok i think this is dumb if want to play a game for about two years it would cost me over 300 dollars i know you make more money like that i would pay for about 100 dollars top to get this game just add some membership thing

Guild Wars 2 was very successful with $60 (plus tax) for the entire game. Thus encouraging players to keep playing. Monthly fees are a thing of the past and don't encourage players to keep playing. It sucks consumers dry of their money and makes them abide to time contraints. I am really looking forward to this game but if it is based on monthly payments then I will definetely not purchase it. And before making a decision, you may want to see how the ESO community feels…

I would rather pay a monthly fee than to pay more than that in extras to play it free to play. I've played at least 7 free to play games and spent way more than I pay for World of Warcraft. Not to mention in a monthly fee game you get everything the game has to offer right away. All character slots, bag and storage space as well as all content. In a free to play game you have to pay extra for each character slot, more storage room and all other content. To get everything you want in a free to play game you'll pay that $300 in less than 6 months. If this game is NOT free to play and is $15 or less a month and its as good as wow I may change games. But if its free to play I will NOT play this game. Maybe if they have a free to play option and a monthly fee for those that want it all right away that'd be fine as well. Free to play sucks unless you have a lot of money to put into the game. Monthly fees are not a thing of the past its just the games are not good enough for the company to pay its investors in time so they go free to play to make that big chunk of cash they need to pay the investors in a timely matter.

Monthly fee is a horrible idea, make the game one single price and maybe charge for in game armor/weapon effects so you make money from people who have it and are able/want to spend it.
Times are tough these days and a lot of people just cant afford to being having to pay for a game each month… one payment for a game.

While naturally I would hope ESO could pull off a F2P model; if it does use a monthly subscription fee, I really hope they do not go over $10.00. $10.00 is much more reasonable than $15.00 recurring monthly and would go a long way.

>There is another reason to keep good price: most gamers are young and do not have enough
>money to pay a very high fee.

The average age of a video gamer in North America is 30, has been playing for 12 years, and buys the most games in their mid-thirties. Parents are present when games are purchased or rented by children under 16, 90% of the time. — Entertainment Software Association 2012.
The average American spends $2,827 per year on entertainment (not including eating out).

Your economics are way off.

People easily have the ability to pay for subscription-based MMOs and they compete extremely well in terms of most other entertainment. For the cost of getting to one movie a night a month, you can pay $10 a month toward an MMO… and obviously get more than two hours of enjoyment out of it. Such games work extremely well against Netflix, your cable bills, PPV video rentals, etc., etc. The only thing it needs… it to be worth playing. If you makes you want to play 100 hours a month on it… its a no-brainer. If you get bored after a month or two and only play a few hours a week… then it isn't a good deal.

Monthly subscription is just annoying. with star wars the old republic, i was gonna buy the game thinking it was going to be like guild wars 2, but once i saw it was a monthly fee it turned me off completely. i didnt even watch the game until 3 months later when they went free to play. because the people who are playing the most are normally people around 14-21, and if your in the 14 range you might not have a job yet, so getting money and remembering to pay that months fee would be a terrible hassle. when i saw that guild wars 2 was a one time deal, i had no quarries with paying the 60 dollars and getting it, because it doesnt require the responsibility of having to remember and keep money set aside for it, but allows players to also spend more on special in game cash with real money and buy from shops.

How about a type of loyalty reward system? Every (Legit) Elder Scrolls Game you've bought, Arena-Skyrim, you get 10% off each month forever. If you have 7, you get 70% off. DLC's not included. Since CD keys and codes can be stolen with online generators, you get off the couch «oh no! what a nightmare!, jk» and go to Gamestop or another equivalent to show proof that you physically own these games. This could work with Steam users too.

It would be great if there are three levels
1 ) monthly fee( like Legendary)
they get all the stuff for a monthly fee…
2) One time pay:
they get a special package with most of the stuffs…
3) free to play:
for those who can't afford the game…

By this system all the users get satisfied and the developers get lot of profit…

I would also like to recommend for a pre-release purchase in which the users pay a one time payment and get the game after release… then they can be promoted to the topmost level… this way the developers can get an advance payment for their future expenses.

You know this might sound big headed or what ever, but I'm totally against game companies that charge money to sell a game (eg. $80 to buy the game) then charge monthly on top of that! Stupid. Why am I paying say $80 for a game which I'm paying for each month anyway? What's the $80 for? Is that disc made of gold?

If I pay $80 ( or what ever amount of money) for a game, then I expect to play it with no extra cost EVER, if you ask me, I've payed for the game already, so why again and again each month?

I'd rather pay say $100 or less for a game that I will NEVER have to pay for again (eg, no monthly subscription, fees etc) the thing is, people say subscriptions etc is for developers to fix bugs etc, how about testing the game before its released so there is no bugs, don't sell a game that ain't ready.

I won't be buying the elder scrolls online if monthly subscription is the only way to play. And I'm sure many others won't as well, it'll be a complete rip off, and I'm sure many would be happy just playing solo on skyrim then online for a stupid price each month.

Monthly subscriptions are a terrible idea. I for example are completely put of by games like this. It's the reason I don't have Xbox live or WOW. Making the game free 2 play wouldn't solve the problem either. Instead, have a certain price that you pay when you first get the game, and then never pay again (except for extras of course). I mean, minecraft did this and look how much profit they made… And TESO would probably be 3x more successful than minecraft. Unless you kept the subscription policy, because I sure wouldn't buy it if you did, and I believe I speak for thousands of fans when I say this. I've always wanted a multiplayer version of skyrim, so don't ruin it by adding subscriptions…

SWTOR was a failure and WOW was revolutionary back in it's day, but you can also blame it for all the shit going around in new MMOs. So basically, you're examples are terrible.
Now, I think those could've been acceptable examples back then when that was the only model used and known. But it's not so anymore. More and more games are beginning to use the pay once model, and you going back 10 years and using the monthly fee model is stupid.

BETHESDA, listen to your fans… Very few people want the monthly fee, and those that do want it are only saying that because they know what a rip-off free to play MMO's can be. Use the pre-pay option because it suits everybody's needs, even yours. You do realise that if you go along with this monthly fee YOU WILL LOSE POTENTIONAL CUSTOMERS? I'm not exaggerating, have you seen how many people have posted saying that THEY WON'T BUY THE GAME IF IT INCLUDES MONTHLY FEE'S??? It's a lot of people I can tell you that. Don't believe me? Read the comment above...and Maybe the first 3 comments at the top of this page… And that's just a few of YOUR FANS… There are plenty more out there...LISTEN TO THEM…

You do not need a monthly fee. If the game is good then you only need to do what Guild Wars 2 is doing and become a pay once game. If you offer good content that you can buy in the game the game will soar! Look at how much revenue Guild Wars 2 has! Exactly, make this game a pay once game, do not restrict content to players, and offer EXP bonuses, outfits and non content restricting item in an in game store that uses real money.

this game dosnt necessarily need a monthly fee this game has been asked for by a majority of oblivion/skyrim fans for years now alot of people will buy the game if a simple $50.00 usd charge for the game its self and a in game cash shop is added that would draw over an even larger player base then im sure you estimated for one you would already have the faithful elder-scroll fans not to mention those gw2 fans would move over as well. that should be more then enough of an income to pay the staff and continue maintenance on the servers.

I love MMOs. Love e'm. Do I play them? No. That's because I realize how cheap monthly subscriptions are. Now listen here Zenimax, Bethesda, or whoever's in charge of the payment method. I'm not one of your fanboy beta testers. I'm not gonna sit in my own filth and play video games 11 hours a day. Why? Because I have a life. And I'm guessing the majority of your customers will as well, and they won't be playing enough to match up to the monthly pricing. I know that a monthly subscription is better in the business aspect of making a game, but people actually have to buy the game before signing up for a subscription. Which I refuse to do if you won't have a pay up front option. I would be okay with spending up to 90 dollars on this game. But I will not pay a monthly fee. Thank you for your time.

Over and over people ask for free to play. Say they can't afford 50 cents per day. But really who's problem is this? Do you go to a five star hotel and expect to pay two star prices just because you can't afford it? Do you eat at a Michelin Star restaurant and expect to pay McDonald's dollar menu prices? You get what you pay for, as true in gaming as most other aspects of life.

I completely understand living on a budget and if you say you can't afford the game I don't hold that against you. There are a crap ton of F2P mmos out there. Do not expect the entire game market however to cater directly to your budget, that is among the silliest most self centered things I've heard.

Why would you insist on ruining the gaming experience for those that willingly and gladly pay a subscription? Because F2P most certainly is a very different type of game than P2P.

Despite how it looks with shallow observation B2P system of GW and GW2 does not work. ArenaNet and NcSoft have had several lay offs over the past couple of years going so far as to selling off 20% of the company to Nexon.

Released 11/2004 EQ2 has had 9 expansions 3 adventure packs, GW released in 04/2005 has had 4. With GW2 they seem to think their current content and the «events» they have are enough.

What if they would release a beta for people who wanna check the game out early. then say it would be 50% off because it still is a beta then charge a monthly fee until the games come out then remove the fee and half price. in that case if it would be 10.00$ each month or 2.00 $ each week and then those which had bought the beta version and paid a few monthly fees' would get the full version for free

They could go the route of DCUO on consoles (PS3 only, however) and start out as a subscription game, then switch to F2P. You can still buy subscriptions, which open up tons of features the F2P people cannot access, but being F2P doesn't make the game any less enjoyable.

I personally feel that F2P is a very viable option. If they do it like defiance did (just with a couple tweaks) were the game has a one time price, which could be high say 100 USD which is unheard of for a standard edition game (although people have payed more for elder scrolls special editions without an online service) and then set it up were F2P doesn't lose any game content or character opportunities etc but instead offers a quicker route to getting items through paying extra.

For example: you don't like to grab everything and make several trip to town selling items and making as much money as possible or you just enjoy spending money when you have it, so you've failed to save any kind of in game currency. Then you have 3 options:

A) save up, like the majority of people;
B) pay real money in exchange for in-game money and vise-versa via a market place of some sort;
C) try to find the item(s) you want in the marketplace by paying real money and choosing from the available item selection which would obviously have to change quiet frequently (1 or 2 times a week)
and/or have some kind or random loot chest in the market place that costs a certain amount of real money the chest could even cost more for increased chance of rare items and/or more items in the chest

This way no one loses out on content because they can't get there parents to pay and or don't want to pay monthly and those who play still get rewarded for in-game riches that may not be equivalent in real life.

P.S: hope they avoid the SW:TOR auction house conundrum were people pay mass amounts of real money and flood markets for in-game riches. (assuming there will be an auction house of sorts and that Items purchased with real money can be put on the markets)

A subscription fee would be a huge mistake, because they already said that one of their largest target groups are the fans of the single-player elder scrolls and single player games all have the pay once + dlc model. Could you imagine to pay 15$ a month to play Skyrim?
Guild Wars 2 has already proven that the pay once model can work for an MMO as well, with the cash shop in addition.
And the other thing is that subscriptions are scaring, ESO will loose many players if they go with the subscription model and less players are less money and in the end it could still end up like Tera or Aion.
40-50$ would be just fine even 80$, but i would never pay any subscription fee.

If this game were to have a monthly fee, how would that work for us console players! I love Xbox and PC to death, but I don't own a gaming computer. It should be an expensive game, however, I don't play online MMO's because of the monthly fee I am too young to afford. You are going to lose, probably the majority of Elder Scroll fans in ESO. I can guarentee I will not have the ability to afford a monthly fee, and not just will not want to play because of the expensiveness, but I just CANNOT play, and a lot of players feel the same.

Please gaming gods! listen to my pleas! Make the elder scrolls online a game that is better than all it precedents, and let it be a monthly fee model. Amen

Here is the issue with a free to play game that offers extra items/abilities/weapon effects, it creates an unfair balance in the game for people who don't have the extra money to buy that stuff, whereas someone with plenty of money can completely deck their character out for real life money, essentially the same as buying a character online. Advanced gamers such as myself hate this, reason being, we like playing purely for skill and causes a lot of your high end gamers to quit over time. Everquest and World of Warcraft were both successful for quite some time on a monthly fee basis. If you are going to F2P, the best and only option is that if you want to pay for the subscription you get extra character models, more character slots, more bank room, or a few options along those lines. At most, possibly an extra dungeon that you can explore. But in my personal opinion, I'm not cheap, if it is a good enough game, I will gladly pay $15 a month for constant updates, hours of hours of fun for a month. In my opinion the $15 a month keeps the game updated and a constant dev team.

In my opinion, it´s important that ESO wouldn´t become a pay-to-win game. Like SWTOR or many many other f2p games out there, where you pay money to get a advantage over others. In this case personal skills aren´t as important as they are in games like wow where everyone pays the same. For me it´s easier to pay a small monthly fee than a single big one, but i understand that there are people for whom it´s easier the other way. In Path of Exile you can only buy unnecessary cosmetical items, this would be the only f2p principle that i would support. I have no experiences with the Guild Wars system of single payment.

I'm good for one time payment or monthly subscription. But please, for the LOVE OF GOD do NOT make it free to play and do not freaking make an in-game store. I've always been strict about cheating in the Elder Scrolls games and I never bring up the console unless there is a bug that is fixable with it. Getting extra benefits in an MMO is cheating, except you get to justify it by saying you paid for it.

Hello. A fan from Malaysia here, No free to play please. I prefer this methods:

1. like gw2, buy the game, but no monthly fee.

or

2. cheap monthly fee below 10usd can be purchased with monthly time card(make it available for asian countries, so many young people play elder scrolls here, but dont have credit card.) put it on 7eleven or game shop, then millions of school kids will buy it.

*updat star wars the old republic became f2p :)

I'm 17 years old and personally don't like monthly fees. They are what kept me from playing WOW because with saving money for college, a car, and other expenses, adding another monthly payment just isn't appealing to me. I like what Guild Wars has done with a single purchase system, the feeling of only making one payment and not having to worry about it in the future allows for me to enjoy the game more. Another reason im not a fan of monthly payments is when school starts or I'm traveling and don't have nearly as much time to play, I feel like I need to hurry and play so I can get my moneys worth for the month. All in all I don't mind paying to download the game, for updates, or for in-game purchases and also agree with a no F2P. ESO looks amazing and I can't wait for it to come out to become my main MMO.

I personally hate subscriptions in games, I mean who wants to pay $15 a month just for 60 minutes or so a day. I mean i do have the time to play a game for extended periods of time, but with subscription based games i and most probably ALLOT of other people would probably like to play other games aswell as ESO but with a subscription you get the feeling of HAVING to play the game so the $15 a month isn't to waste. So as a MASSIVE Elder Scrolls fan i'd hate to have to pay monthly ON TOP OF PAYING FOR THE GAME AT THE STORE just to play one of my favourite games of all time. I would just much rather buying the game at store or online even if it means $100 to do so then never have to pay again unless for dlc's or in game bonuses or content. On behalf of atleast %50 of Elder Scrolls fans I'd love to just get the game and play!

I have to agree with making The Elder Scrolls Online a subscription based game. Making TESO a F2P game would be a horrible idea for the fact it does encourages the «Item Mall» aspect, which is the one thing i hate about F2P games. The item mall gives players a broken advantage over other players that can't afford it, by giving them access to exclusive gear. I'm very glad that a couple of the other commentors have mentioned this. I mean, what is the point of an MMO? Look at WoW for instance (which is still subscription-base and is still top dog). The idea of leveling your character and raiding for your gear and partying up for instances and so on! Thats what makes WoW amazingly successful and is still going and adding the item mall will destroy that entire concept! Let face it, its bloody nerve-racking and you work very hard on developing your character and some random joe or jane comes along an insta-kills you because they bought all the exclusive gear. There would be no more point to the game

Now I do understand that the market out there is tough and very competitive, and if the do add an item mall, it should be strictly for cosmetic and avatar items that does not affect your stats but just the way character looks. Im cool with that!

And if you think about it, i have purused some of the items malls that i have come across and some of the prices are pretty crazy! So for you to be top player you would have to spend even more money ( and there are people who will spend that money) in the short and long run than if you were to have full access for about $120 to $150 a year! The elder scrolls series have been around for a very long time and have created some of the best refined RPGs out there. They will lose all respect and credibility the second they make it F2P, i guarantee that! Dont let that happen!

I used to play both WoW and TOR. But I stopped playing because it was draining my bank account of money I didn't have. I am 16 now, and have a job at a Radioshack. If you know economics, then Radioshack pays minimum wage. If you want to sell a game well, than don't add this Pay and play crap. This is a terrible idea. You of all people should know times are tough. You made 2 games throughout the economic recession that ended last year. This is a very idiotic idea, and I hope you change your mind. The reason WoW dropped from 7 million players to 5 million is because they turned the game into a wallet snatching machine. A lot of people didn't have enough time to play a $14.99 a month game and weren't getting entirely what they paid for. Please do not charge for Online. I don't care whether I have to pay $50 or $200 for TES Online, but if I have to pay $15 a month for a game I'm not going to play often, then I'm going to have to buy your single player RPGs, not out of malice, but because I cannot afford nor can anyone in my household a $15 per month game, plus it builds up fast. I'm not going to demand you to make it pre-purchase like your boss, but I am suggesting to you a system that a lot of people would enjoy, as a long-time fan since Morrowind.

That's almost 200$ a year. Plus the base game price which is 60$. And if you are going to play on the next gen console that's another 500$ Just to start the game up. Most people can't afford to throw that kind of money around. What zenimax and Bethesda soft works is doing is making the game a sort of exclusive type game where a lot of people won't be able to afford access to. Having the 15$ a month will discourage a lot of people from playing the game. Lowering the monthly subscription price or making it free to play will most likely pull more players into participating in the game. Also having dlc packages would pull even more money but be worth it. The elder scrolls games are fun and well done. Don't mess it up.

Im from Philippines. I would ask to ask the ESO organization and owner. What is the releasing month and year in Phillippines and how much it will cause? Its better to be download for free and free to play. if you thinking of how you will earn try to have a key for each account then sell the key for low price so every one who are willing to play can afford the keys thanks.

Honestly, I think it is nice that ES is now an MMO. Personally I do not have the expendable income to play MMOs and I do not have the time required to dedicate my life to them as many people seem to. I would have been satisfied if they simply modified games like Skyrim and Oblivion so that I could play with one to three of my friends.

I seriously think that u should pay for the game once not $15 monthly cause thats just plain stupid what happens if you really like the game ur going to pay $15 for how month's many ur going to play I don't think so.

Here's the scoop as I see it:

There are so many incredibly good games coming out, that are not subscription based and that are quite lengthy.
Unless you're a die hard fan of Elder Scrolls, I foresee most people passing on this and spreading their cash elsewhere.

If you're on a console, why would you commit $15 / month to 1 game, when you're already paying a user fee to Sony or Microsoft for most of your other games. This model just doesn't make sense any more.

There are those people who love playing just 1 game for months, possibly years on end. That's not me. There's just too many good games coming out.

Heck, if you're really into swords/sorcery, Dragon Age III, Dark Souls II among others will be more than happy to consume your time.
Good luck Bethesda, I'm bowing out this time.

Has anyone here played runescape? That’s how it would work if u were going to do a membership thing or u wanted not to pay a monthly fee so this would be an example of what would happen. Say you want to get a daedric mace (if it’s in the game) and right when you press the button to buy it its says «pay 2.99 and you can buy this weapon» or some thing like that. not only have u spent game time gathering up enough money to buy it with tamriel dollars u also have to use real dollars because they banned it from the regular game because they want to make profit off of it. or u level up to level 50 or whatever and u get a really awesome skill you've been waiting soooooo long to use and right when u try to use it it says «pay 4.50 to use this skill» u get super pissed that u can't use it and that already equals up to like 7.50 that is why we shouldn't pay for extras because u would have to buy armor and a whole bunch of stuff with real dollars because you want all twelve of your characters to be really awesome and that in the end would equal up to like 400. and this would happen because their not going to make much off of looking like a troll or have a falmer pet cuz its not very useful and not very many people will want to buy it. And I do believe the first few months there’s going to be a fee but after that it will be like noha said its going to be disc only and maybe even free. And with monthly subscription it would be so much better because it wouldn’t restrict anything from anyone and it wouldn't cost as much. So just wait for it to be disc only if ur that cheap. But that’s why a monthly fee for this game is better.

ESO reminds me of Club Penguin.

yeah definently do NOT do a montly subscription for TES, its a bad idea, people will be ver discouarged to play, even me, i would pay $200 for it not to have a monthly fee, and you can just add an ingame store for those who have the money to throw around but make it vanity items that you buy, not items that would give an advantage over someone who doesnt wish to pay.

This would be a BIG mistake, because if they want money ewery month for playing, in the end none would play, so i think that an one time paymen would be better

and by the way, Skyrim were a great game and i enjoyed the h**l out of it so if they do this it would very surely be there BIGEST mistake ever!

Do it like Runes of Magic and sell diamonds for upgrades of gears and stuff! I know Iots of friends who spent way too much for that! way more than just monthly (believe me cuz i did). You will get serious money spenders there instead of forcing a monthly subscription that already provides a negative reaction. That way, those who get to play at their own pace gets to spend what invested in their own time, unlike a monthly which forces some (like me) to not be interested anymore since I know i wont be able to play as often to get my monthly pay's worth.

This is mighty arrogant of Bethesda to think this tactic is going to be successful.

Unless you've been drugged or held at gun point, I don't see why anyone who's reasonably intelligent would pay a monthly subscription fee for a game. We live in times where there are at least a dozen great games per year that are worth your time. Why would you want to limit your time, let alone $ investment on one game? That just doesn't make sense. Unless of course you're used to paying monthly fees for games, in which case nothing I say will make any sense to you whatsoever because you've drunk the koolaid as they say.

I have payed subscriptions in the past and I get that other games cost 15$ per month but if it does cost that much I wont buy this game even though I really want to. I have been playing Guild Wars 2 and paying for skins I like when I want to, all in all I have probably spend 15$ a month on Guild Wars 2 anyway but… I play casually. On an average week maybe 3-4 hours, on weekends maybe 10 hours and when I'm busy I might go a month or two not playing. I do not want to pay for a game a don't play. I do not want to anticipate how much free time I will have next month and whether it is worth buying a subscription for this month or not. And if in the middle of my twelve hour day I feel like playing for two hours I do not want to pay 15$ for that privilege. That is why I cancelled my WoW subscription even though I enjoyed the game. Monthly subs are a big discouragement not only for the younger people who don't have their own money but also for 30+ players like me who would like to play casually.

As for Guild Wars 2 model the cash items can be purchased with in game money too and are mostly cosmetic not game changing.

P2P is the best, way to go :) Don't ever change it…

really? I hope you listen to how your fans are responding..i have been a fan since daggerfall and been in love since I really hope you see how many fans you lose doing this, I for one can't afford it, and know people who wont pay, reason why so many people stopped playing WOW, im just saying I love ES always have.but i really hope yall do something about it. Because it's an awesome concept and always wished this would happen...just not like this.

I really do hope you guys are taking into account what we are all saying here. I would absolutely LOVE to play this game, but if you're looking to bring an «attractive» price, $60 for the game at retail on top of a $15 monthly fee is anything but attractive. You guys are shooting yourselves in the head with this. That's just not something I along with many others I'm sure simply cannot afford. If the sub fee is a must, I understand. Charging full retail price for the game is what I do NOT understand. Please find a way to be reasonable here. I've only been playing ES since Skyrim, but I am already in love with this series, and if I have to miss out on this because of ridiculous prices and fees, I'll be heartbroken. Please reconsider what your doing with these prices. I'm begging you.

you know what i think we should all be rational here okay. one bethesda has worked hard on this for the past few YEARS beacuse we all wanted multiplayer now that they have it out they may want to charge by month and even though i personaly cannot afford a month per month charge i understand where they are coming from. two we do not need to bring in personal wealth mr richy rich and oliver twist it doesnt matter do you know how many games started off with pay by month and ended up free to play (ps bethesda stwor is ftp) third back to the first when one of you complaining little children can spend years making an mmo this big then you can complain and give tips

I bet all those who want it FTP, if you were in there shoes you would charge a small 15 monthly fee. Personally I will prob do what i always do with mmo… play for few months then stop playing…

Still they are putting a lot of time and effort into this game for use Players. It will take a lot to keep servers running, a lot to pay employees to help do services and maintenance, to put in additional things long the line. I work for Walmart...I don't have a big pretty paychecks. Yet I am still willing to budget the game in. So what am I doing..I am putting money a side where I can…

1st: SWTOR is free to play: you pay only if you are liking the game/extrastuff. Then this game costs 60 EU and $15 an month.
Who pays 75 eu?

It will be a shame if you make this game subscription based. You will loose many valuable customers and the game will be a failure like most mmos these days. I agree with most of the people here that basing this games payment methods off wow and swtor is a terrible idea. The goal here should be to get all of these players to come to your game and that will not happen with a subscription fee. Pay once, one time fee and charge for expansions. Bethesda is one of the most creative developers to date. Make a statement and cancel the monthly fees to maximize profits and keep many happy and loyal customers. By doing so this game will absolutely crush all competition. Listen to the fans.

Ps I was in GameStop the other day and a fan canceled his pre order because he heard there was going to be a subscription fee. On top of all the other bills we have in our lives........a video game fee is a huge headache. It's only 50 cents a day but it does add up. Charge a bit more for those expansions but really put some effort in to the creation. People will toss out wow, marveling at your sophisticated strategy and loyalty to your fans!

If I need to pay a monthly fee to play this game I'm not buying it.

I don't understand. Why not make a shop with special perks/item payed with actual cash? It's a one-time pay, so I would think a lot of us would go for it. Like most of us said before, a lot of the ESO fans are just going to choose another MMO to play. I honestly think this subscription is unnecessary, you will be getting more than enough money to pay off these people.

www.gamespot.com/articles/elder-scrolls-online-will-eventually-be-free-to-play-analyst/1100-6375882/
Bloody miracle if this rumour is true, but still who will play if it's going to be free in the future? I think it should be F2P in general, plus the shop idea.

Personally, I play a lot of F2P games on Steam such as Path of Exile, Blacklight: Retribution, Alien Swarm and many others and I totally agree with their business models. First off, trolling gamers are going to be in any game whether they pay for it or not, that's a fact that everyone needs to accept honestly. However, Zenimax is putting a lot of effort into ensuring that this game does not disappoint a fan base that has been established long before WoW even became an MMO. Thus, these hard working developers and designers (who are often underpaid in their fields — no remark against Zenimax of course) deserve to get paid for all of their long hours, time away from families, and stressful additions to ensure that we the fan base are satisfied with the gaming industry's most anticipated title's branch into the MMO genre.

However, there are certain challenges to making a game F2P such as: if the game is free to play, what do we charge for?
Do we allow people to buy specific, higher-grade weapons?
Do we allow people to buy certain character-altering abilities such as quick-healing and such?
Do we allow for additional storage for purchase?

It's simple, in Blacklight you are given two weapon load-outs, one of which is given by default and the other is given upon leveling to level 5. You have one of two choices in this game, one: put your wallet into the game and unlock certain weapons quicker or two: grind for a few hours and unlock the same weapons whilst earning the XP. In this aspect, this eliminates the Pay to Win fallout. If you want that 3rd, 4th, and 5th weapon load out, you're gonna need your wallet, but at the same time, I've been playing the game for over a year and while I admit that a 3rd load out would be optimum for my game play and strategy, it's not entirely necessary and I make due playing with what I have earned. However, the grinding hours that it takes to unlock certain weapons are simply too long and thus take away the luster and insight to continuing play. Of course, they've done this to subtly suggest paying for the upgrades instead; unfortunately, this tactic backfires more than not and you end up losing consistent players.

In Path of Exile the ONLY thing you can buy in-game are things that will make your character stand out in the crowd. This pushes the gaming community to buy things honestly because if you want that glowing crown or smoking bow, you gotta pay for it. However, nothing in the game play is actually enhanced, or missed out on, because you could or could not afford it. I have seen dozens of people run by me in that game with certain little, add-ons and it's only made me want to put forth cash towards a F2P game.

Now, keep in mind these are two UNKNOWN games that are finally getting some form of reputation because of their marketing strategies. In other words, they are NOT The Elder Scrolls. It does not matter if the game is F2P, people WILL put money towards giving their character a mohawk or the ability to paint their armor a different color as many times as they want whenever they want for as many sets of armor as they have. People WILL pay to have their bow glow with ribbons of light or circles of blackened, inky, smoke. People WILL pay to unlock another inventory page (as long as it's not an unreasonable price to pay <=$5). People WILL pay to further their ESO experience, but to be honest if you ask me to pay to play online, I'll have MUCH more fun with Skyrim and the Creation Kit and you WILL NOT get my money. You want to gear your game towards the larger market and although WoW still has millions of subscribers, the game is on the decline because people don't WANT to afford it anymore.

Wanna make people pay? Make it a team effort and have them pay for Guild attributes and the like. You can party up all you like, but if you want those Guild benefits...you're gonna need your wallet. The answer is simple and the times have changed; you wanna hit the market hardcore and reach as many players as possible? Go F2P and completely open as well by not limiting anything in the game what so ever. People will pay for the extra customization items. I've seen your character creation abilities and they are nothing short of phenomenal, but people are ALWAYS gonna want that little, extra, something else that sets them specifically apart and that's the things we WILL pay for. (Keyword there was 'extra') After all, you ARE The Elder Scrolls and we know we're getting one Hell of a product…

you know guys, only a pizza cost between 5 and 20 bugs plus the tip, i rather play this probably great game on equal terms with those who have a lot of money, because if the game will be free i'm sure as hell won't start to buy around things AT ALL and neither will i spend an eternity figuring out how to achieve the same thing on free play with those who had the budget to pay in some cases hundreds of dollars if it's even possible, in a lot of cases it's not. I would rather pay 10 or 15$ for this game /month, well this is my opinion. All in all i think the game will be worth 30 to 40 with a 10 or 15 monthly cost. And by the way, who the heck will play a game 2 years straight?

I think $15 a month is way too much if they are going to have people who use the PS4 or Xbox One play for free, if anything it should be the same price as xbox gold live.

Hey everyone here is a petition to stop the subscription fee for ESO, and only have a pay once system i encourage all of you to sign it please NO ONE WANT'S THIS! www.change.org/petitions/the-elder-scrolls-online-subscription-fee-one-time-payment-for-full-game-access#share

I would like to pay once and be done because i plan on getting the PS4 and playing on there but now you need to have PS+ to have an online experience. that fee with the ESO sub fee seem like a huge pain to me. and i dont want to put a lot of money into a good enough PC to run the game. but I also agree to the sub plan only because of trolls and the other content you would have to use real money to get any good items right off instead of earning them from questing.

I would like the pay once model like guild wars 2 then get an in game shop that sells aesthetic items, i own guild wars 2 and love that game I play all the time but if this is monthly I will avoid it like I do WoW :( although i really wants it

Humm, that's 180$ yearly. A bit expensive. I'd rather a one-time pay and done, but then it would mean cash items too.
I dunno, ES MMO is a great thing, but price will be an issue. A heavy one.

Having an Xbox one I will already be paying $5 a month for xbox live they expect me to pay an extra $15 just to play this game? I have always loved the elder scrolls games but this game is looking like a huge mistake. I will wait until it bombs and is forced to go f2p then I will play.

I will play beta test, but I don't want to pay 13€ monthly. I was excited when i heard about ESO, now I'm not anymore, I won't purchase this game.

I don't mind paying 15 a month if then the expansions are free or very low priced...<.<
But i would rather have it be 10 a month to be honest

I don't mind the pay to play, but I'd much rather prefer something like $5-10 or if they do the $15 have it so can buy like 3 months at a time for 30

Elder scrolls has got alot more popular since skyrim and everyone says the say. i wish i could plays this with my mates… obviously its a big hit from that point alone but the price is a joke i think personally if they made there prices alot cheaper i think they would attract more customers and possibly steal players away from the likes of wow i think making people pay this amount is only gonna put people off! like they said most people who will play are younger (students and so on) who dont have jobs or get paid shit money we cant all afford to keep a membership going while paying for day to day life sadly lol

My opinion:

Definitly don't make it free. I've played over 20 mmo's. And I must honestly say that all the free one sucked. The reason for that is, that in free to play games you'll always have a gameshop. Which allow you to buy experience pots+swords+gear and whatsoever. People become better by spending cash in the gameshop.

I prefer a monthly fee for several reasons too. Real gamers and lots of fans who think it's worth the money will pay anyways. People who don't want to spend just 13 dollars a month (about 1-2 hours work) are not worth trying for.

I say ESO should have a subscription but on the other hand it should be less lets say 5 bucks a month? Then we have both sides of the picture just enough to deter «trolls» but not to hard on the dedicated fans.
I can see the reasoning behind a sub such as maintenance so on and so forth but you also must remember that we are not all millionaires. I also enjoy the fact of no online store for pay 2 win I say you are so close but with a little tweaking in your monetizing system and ill be fully on board with ESO along with countless others!

Xbox live users will be paying for their yearly live membership plus the game plus the online membership<----seems repetitive not to mention I'm sure even with the online membership their will be an in game store sounds like a lot of consumers are gonna pass on the this game because that's kind of giving them the shaft I think I would have to agree...I was absolutely looking forward to this game but for the over 300 dollar Initial yearly sub plus buying the console you're looking at close to a grand with the game and sub costing close to the amount of a console seems that Microsoft is able to keep updating their consoles software with a one time fee I would think the game would be astronomically less work but what do I know...I've played almost every mmo and rpg game made but I'm done with the subs ontop of subs it's kinda brutal on the consumer......as much as I would love to this game is gonna be a pass for me

I do really want to play this new MMO game but I am afraid I won't be able to pay a monthly fee cuz' I am from Venezuela. There will not be any payment method available to this country soo I guess I'm f***. Anyway some day I'm going to move my ass to another country.

I heard that they may have game cards you can purchase for the game, unsure what countries those will be sold in however. They also plan on discounts if you pre-purchase 3, 6, or 12 months in advance. If the pricing is similar to other subscription MMO's, the 12-month rate should only be $9-10 per month.

What they need to remember is that platform gamers like myself don't want p2p, because there are other games we want to play as well. Paying 15 a month for TESO would be a waste because after the 1st month even if I really enjoy the game I'm going to want to play other games and the 15 a month wont feel justified. Its a lose lose for platform, you either play nothing but TESO and the console membership is wasted or you play other games as well and the ESO subscription is wasted.

As much as I love all the previous games from the past. If They decide to put a monthly fee on this game, Looks like I won't be buying or playing it! I have a job, family and responsibilities in life. I would buy and play this game if they would decide to make a one time fee!!!

Monthly fees suck because I wanted to play this game with my brothers. I have two brothers. I'm not paying 45 dollars a month just to play a game. It should be 20 dollars for the first three months, then 5 dollars a month. Anything more nah....Xbox live charges what? 60 dollars a year and they have really good servers that support a plethora of games. While we're expected to pay 60 dollars for 1/6th of that time? On top of that its for a game that isnt gurenteed to be «Great». I like the game a lot, but there are also a lot of harsh crits..and it really is not worth that much, becuase the game is not competitive. As you do quests you are hoarded with items, making your charachter pretty good for its level. WoW is a competitive game where you have to go the extra mile for certian drops, and you dont share loot. I like ESO approach better, but Im not gonna pay more for a less competitive game. Becuase if im paying for a game, im paying to be the best. Not the same as everyone else my level who will get the same things as me, and my loot etc.

The price should be 15 dollars for a MONTH of PLAYING TIME. A reasonable day in play time should be considered as 8 hours. Therefore, If someone buys a month of subscription they are buying 240 hours of play time. Also instead of discounts when people buy more months, their day rate should be changed to 10 hours = a day, to a of maximum of 16 hours of play time = a day. That way is more reasonable, and removes the problems with people worrying about whether or not they will buy the next month of subscription because they will not be playing. Also, it is a good ratio because people are literally paying for the time they are on the servers. So with this method, there would never be troubles in terms of money to keep up the servers (even though there wouldn't be anyways) Because the more people online, the more money is being made (in a sense, even though the money is already paid upfront.)

Ok I have read all of these statements. I have played WoW when it was first said to be released as a pre-order. I payed for all of the expansions until the lvl 85 cap I think was appocolyps or something like that. The trolls in F2P or even in payed games get rather annoying. Hence I stopped playing WoW for I think 3 or more years. I does not appeal to me any more at all. I have all my characters which I think is 6 or 8 per server at least back then all at lvl 85. I played for another month and then quit. Swtor is an alright game, except I feel that a company should really look into doing what Guild Wars 1 and 2 did. Pay once and your done, you can always purchase other things for special effects, xp boosts, and whatnot. I feel if its payed or monthly then they should be able to get everything they would sell in s online store just would take a bit longer to get those items, minus anything that makes your armor glow or something like that. I purchased Guild Wars 2 and loved it, I played the beta, and i bought the collectors edition I think it was over 100 USD but under 150 USD. In Swtor and many other F2P games you get the people who dont pay for anything, harass those who do P2P begging for money or whatever. Those people ruin a game. I would rather pay a monthly fee or 15 or less USD, without paying 60 or more dollars on top of that. I think ESO should really look into creating this game a free to play, and if you get a collectors edition make it around 100 USD with some special items your characters get once per character like never winter online. That being said I agree with what some have said you should pay a large sum for the game and not have to pay anymore if you get it as a pre-order or 1 month after release. As I say that it should only be those who pay for the collectors edition and not a standard one. after 1 month of the game being release there is no way to avoid a month fee and get everything. I also think that this game and many MMO's out there should have good servers for those who pay so we don't lag like in ESO beta that was extremely annoying. Put the F2P on the lower cost servers which means those servers rather suck. They get lag or may not be able to play because the server is at max. Give the F2P players a taste on that server so they can see if they like the game minus the lag, and they would more than likely make the decision to do a monthly fee. If ESO does want to do a monthly fee they should not charge as I had just seen on www.direct2drive.com 59.99 USD for pre-order. As I had played the beta and liked it to a point, I personally will not be paying 60 bucks and then another 15 dollars monthly especially if it is as bad lag-wise as it was in the beta. If they persist on wanting 60 bucks they should make it to where after that 60 dollar purchase you get 2-4 months subscription free, then pay the 15 or less dollars a month fee. That should be more than fair.

I realize there are some typos in my earlier statement but after correcting them and trying to post the changes the sever kept saying the edit was no longer possible. Now here is a opinion of mine personally of what I will be doing and honestly I suggest many others do this if the game does lag like in beta, or they persist in the 59.99 USD price plus tax with a subscription fee on top of that.

I feel if they do wish a 59.99 dollar purchase plus tax with a monthly subscription on top of that I may just wait a year or two when they realize they cannot make as large or a profit as the earlier suggestions would have. After a year or two maybe even less than that I feel the games cost will go down drastically or all together and make it to where you pay a monthly subscription.

You know i hate to admit this but the idea behind The Elder Scrolls Saga is a great one. Arena was the first ever Sandbox Open World RPG… Daggerfall once again broke ground for the shear size of the game itself with thousands of massive dungeons to explore in the same open world… then with Morrowind the only attempt to revive FPRPG once again Bethesada topped all expectations gathering a whole new age of gamer… then again with brutality of the Oblivion plane in Oblivion and the shear breath taking world they created in skyrim… now attempting to do the same again with TES online… i mostly play UWO and Stronghold Kingdoms because they are Free to Play, but i myself, wanna continue to see the world of tamrel expand at the same rate… my opinion on the mater is that not only should it be like GOW2 where you pay a base price for the game there should also be a monthly and on top of that a in-game cash store for exclusive items… the more money put into the game by the players and the better the quality and larger expance of the world can be acheved along with weeding out the base players who just play for a week and move on

way to much money its ridiculous 60+ 15 a month 180 a year + the game
+ console you have to pay 50+ for online play like psn or xbox live

I personally like the idea of either free to play or buy to play, mainly because I have college and can't afford to pay a subscription fee that is over 10 dollars. If they do choose a model, I hope they pick the buy to play model, I enjoy Skyrim so much, if it was a subscription model, I wouldn't be touching it, over the fact I can't afford it and going to college.
(Please keep in mind, this is my opinion and something I think would be a good idea, since I play online games that are free to play and buy to play and enjoy both versions.)

You know that they are wrong about Star Wars online because it does not cost anything to play they game whatsoever. if you want to pay to play it, it is only 15 dollars plus tax.

Again the whole buy the game, plus sub, plus in game cash store is ridiculous.
the last two are fine or the pay, then in game cash store without a sub is also another great way to go. But all 3 together only those who have cash to blow and don't care to do so would pay for this game. I was a beta tester I will say that the game is pretty good and the graphics were just as good as skyrim.
The main problem I kept running into is that they had waay too many beta testers and the server couldn't support them all. The game crashed, or lagged or you could not log into the game. They need to fix all of those issues before even attempting to release this game.

Depending on how much the game costs and what they decide to do for the game I may wait a year or more before even playing this game. I can continue to play skyrim or earlier versions of Elderscrolls for free.

Over the last decade I have purchased a large number of games from Bethesda and while I am only one voice I can assure you I will no longer purchase anything from this company going forward. I understand a need to maintain profit for a studio and compensation for the creative work — this however appears to me as nothing more than greed and stupidity. While I will miss a franchise I enjoyed, I will gain more enjoyment from other titles and studios as a result of no longer purchasing you software. My only hope is that this fails and the executives responsible end up working at gas station so someone with more vision can further the gaming world for the better.

I really dont mind a montly payment since, like others mentioned, it brings less trolls and other annoying gamers.
That being said i think 15$ is too high and from the looks of it i think the price for the game is too high aswell. 10$ a month sounds more reasonable to me. i dont mind F2P games but for an mmo i can see the need for a steady income for the developers. Besides why not make it a low monthly fee with prettylooking stuff to buy that does NOT affect ur epicness, stats or power in any way, but just gives the players that want an awesomelooking horse or armor.

That way the players that has the money for it and wants to stand out can do so, while the poor and cheap gamers can have the full game without the pretty «my little pony» or whatever stuff WoW did too mess up the feeling of being in an interesting fantasy univers.

Just my 2 cents, pretty sure theres just as many opinions on how they should do it as there is gamers…

Be clever people! P2P is a huge mistake, i'd say pay once and play as much as you want, without monthly fee. There are many who don't want to even buy the game because of this, about 50% or more, WoW was successful back in the day, just because it was one of the biggest, best and maybe greatest MMO, but these days is another story.

While Zenimax and Bethesda are making a HUGE profit out of this, you're getting a phat no lifer just because you want to play. Those of you who can afford buying the game and pay monthly fee, good for you, give them your money for nothing. I'll buy the game only if they are giving up on this idea. It's all about making profit here, just a simple calculation here, 15$/month*100.000 players = 1.500.000$ / MONTH! Whyle they sold 20million of Skyrim copies, 100.000 it's just a small number, what if all those 20 million people would pay a monthly 15$ fee? After a few years you're gonna look back and realise that you've been spending money just to sit on a chair and,… and… and… ????? And what ?? «is that all i've been doing ?». Don't judge me for this, but after the same amount of years, considering you are growing, you are getting more mature and… ??? Well if most of the players are gonna be between 14-21 it's gonna be parents money for sure, at least the 14-19 part, those at 21 maybe have more brains, but who knows?

Come on, no hater here but they're just ripping you off because you let them do it! P2P is not good for those who can't afford, and there are many who can't afford it, i'd rather double that sum of money ( 30$ ) and spend them at the gym. It's about be trampled by everyone, or get attitude

I understand the need for a subscription based model. If you don't, I heard a great explanation from ChimneySwift11. He explained that the monthly cost will keep inexperienced MMO players from just bombing the servers and taking up much the needed room. HOWEVER, many avid gamers (Like me), don't have the type of income to pay fifteen dollars a month, every month. Free to play, would simply kill the game. They wouldn't make any money. The same goes for five dollars a month. I would say that ten dollars a month, is the perfect amount. Cheap enough for people without a high paying job to play, and also high enough to make it too expensive for little kids. This is simply my opinion, so don't hate if you think differently. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Ok first the price has already been set there are not gonna be no take backs on anything, the subscription will not cover expansions just like in other ES games you pay for expansions, the 15 dollars a month is just common sense to pay for a server you need to be able to pay the people who work on the server, its gonna be having a lot of traffic going onto it, so they will need to pay attention to the server and paying a IT does not come cheap. I agree with the payment method after reading all the complaints, its simple to say if you cannot afford the game then don't play it keep playing whatever else you are.....it is not our fault if you cannot afford a video game just stop ruining it for the rest of us with your whiney complaints get a job and if you already have one and still cant afford it then I feel sorry for you you are complaining about a video game that should be F2P and what do you think the people who worked their asses off worked for FREE....no they got paid to create this game its a good game enjoy it and sorry if you cannot afford it but that is not our concern. It is yours