There's a few big shifts coming for ZeniMax Online Studios' ongoing experience in Tamriel.
As 2024 draws to a close, ZeniMax Online Studios head Matt Firor shared a message with fans of The Elder Scrolls Online, celebrating the studio's accomplishments and talking a bit about what players can expect in 2025.
The biggest change is coming exactly how content will be coming in the future. While The Elder Scrolls Online has used annual expansions referred to as Chapters since 2017 — the most recent one, Gold Road, launched a few months ago — this model is finally being retired, as the team wants more room to experiment that isn't possible on shorter timelines. In place of Chapters, The Elder Scrolls Online is shifting to Seasons, with each Season taking place over three or six months, bringing a mixture of story content, events, dungeons, and more.
Alongside this big shift, the team is going to be looking at a list of things to improve largely based on player feedback. This includes improving performance in Cyrodiil, improving the way combat feels through animation and effects, and making guilds easier to manage and engage with. The developers are also planning to improve the player user experience, with a better patcher and UI on PC.
Looking ahead, there's another content update coming in March 2025, while the team is planning to share more in a big announcement at some point in April 2025. This is a bit further off than the usual January reveals that Chapters previously received.
ZeniMax Online Studios has another game in the works
The Elder Scrolls Online has been a sometimes-underrated earner for Xbox and Bethesda, and it's impressive that the team was able to adapt and chug along for this many years. Slowing down a touch and changing how things work really isn't surprising, though it does raise some questions for me.
A huge reason myself and many others have enjoyed The Elder Scrolls Online is because it didn't feel like a chore to play, and I could take a break for months only to hop back in and not feel like I've missed anything. I hope the new seasonal model still reflects this kind of design philosophy.
Another aspect I'm sure is at play here is that ZeniMax Online Studios is working on another game. Little is known, but the team has vastly expanded over the last few years in support of this project, while is also using a completely new engine. Back in 2022, there were over 200 developers working on this project, a number that's almost certainly grown since.
While I'm sure the Elder Scrolls Online team would appreciate having more room to breathe, it wouldn't surprise me if they're also taking this opportunity to move some staff over to this yet-unrevealed game.
This also comes as ZeniMax Online Studios recently unionized, a trend we're seeing at multiple Xbox teams, including at Bethesda Game Studios and the World of Warcraft development team at Blizzard Entertainment.
The Elder Scrolls Online is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Mac. The base game is also included in Xbox Game Pass.
