Just last week, Bethesda announced that The Elder Scrolls Online would require a monthly subscription, disappointing many gamers who were hoping it would adopt a free-to-play model right out of the gate.
As such, playing this game on the Xbox One will be extra expensive, as an Xbox Live Gold subscription will be required as well. Bethesda hopes to change this by getting Microsoft to remove the Gold requirement for its upcoming fantasy-based MMO.
Bethesda marketing boss Peter Hines shared the following with OXM:
We feel like most people such as yourself currently pay that subscription not to pay a game, but to play all games online. So in that sense, when I’m playing Call of Duty online I don’t feel like I’m paying my monthly Xbox Live sub for Call of Duty – I’m just paying it because that’s a thing that I do, and whatever game I’m playing at the time is the one that benefits.
Having said that, we have been in talks with Microsoft about that very thing, and seeing whether or not there’s any room to change their minds about that, for folks who are only paying The Elder Scrolls Online and don’t want to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription, just to pay the Elder Scrolls Online.
The answer right now is that’s the way it works, but it’s something that we’re aware of and we keep pushing on, to see if there’s something that can be done. We’ll let you know if there’s movement there.
At the moment, if you want to play this game on console when it eventually launches, you'll have to shell out $14.99 a month in addition to having either a PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold subscription. Do you think this is too much to ask from gamers? Should Sony and Microsoft lift their requirements, or should Bethesda not be charing a monthly fee in the first place? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
