Elder Scrolls Online Will Be Scrapping Its Year-Long Narratives Starting In 2023
Over the past few years, Elder Scrolls Online has taken players on journeys across different parts of Tamriel with its year-long narratives. After four years though, the format has gotten kind of stale, a fact that the team at ZeniMax Online Studios acknowledged as it announces that its ditching long-running story arcs in favor of repeatable content.
“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,” said Studio Director Matt Firor. “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.”
According to Firor, they’re now looking at finding the right balance between releasing new “one-and-done” content and replayable ones. “[…] We are hearing from our new players that the sheer number of zones and stories and characters is intimidating,” Firor said. “[…] Our veteran players consistently tell us that they would like more content that isn’t played through just once—they would like more content they can enjoy for years; content that utilizes our already existing zones to add new things to do, and most importantly, introduces some new gameplay.”
In response, the developers will be changing their update cadence for 2023 although there won’t be any noticeable difference until the third quarter of the year. The first quarter of the year will see the release of the traditional dungeon DLC followed by a new chapter DLC in the second quarter. The Q3 update will focus on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, while Q4 will feature the addition of a new gameplay system.
ZeniMax promises to share more information about the new system early next year. As for the new chapter DLC, it’s going to be a bit different than what players have gotten used to. “The 2023 ESO Chapter will be a complete story: you will be able to play all the way through it without a storyline that is broken out and reserved for later in the year,” said ZeniMax. “We will return to larger/better and more detailed Chapters by doing this. We are REALLY excited about next year’s Chapter—for details, you’ll have to wait for our Global Reveal Event in January. But one hint: this will be part one of a multi-year story arc and will contain one of the most requested new features.”
Read a letter to you, our community, from Studio Director Matt Firor, discussing another big year for The Elder Scrolls Online and its future. https://t.co/Wym2IC79f5 pic.twitter.com/XhXUuMAHeX
— The Elder Scrolls Online (@TESOnline) December 12, 2022
