Studio Director’s Letter: 2025 & Beyond

Celas_Dranacea

Thank you for the updates. My read on the overall direction is that the ZOS team is prioritizing some items with the longterm stewardship of ESO and the community in mind. I appreciate the direction with updating old zones and making it easier for new and old players to jump into eso - this is all very healthy.

Personally I will always be most excited about updates to Cyrodil - not everyone will feel this way but for me it’s the crown jewel of ESO. The idea of a campaign with separate abilities that enable greater player numbers and performance is interesting and I’m all for it, though I’m not sure I would choose that over the format we currently have. I just hope Cyrodil updates include some new content like towns / siege types / npcs / features to keeps + some mechanic that help balance score over the course of a month-long campaign.

Thank the team for a lot of good work over the course of 2024. As a player that returned this year, there is a lot of great new development that I have really enjoyed.

colossalvoids

Faulgor wrote: »

Everything else sounds almost too good to be true (visual base game upgrade? overland difficulty? combat animation upgrades? WHAT!?).

Had the same feeling here, sounds too promising and looks like there's some vision might be emerging for the game again, after years of draught and aimless attempts.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Thank you for all the great questions so far, everyone. We are keeping a list to help inform what we need to answer and explain more later. And we will. One thing we do want to clarify today are the questions about seasonal content. Our plans are not to remove content such as quests, stories, and new areas like some other games do when a season is over.

Ilsabet

Hopefully "seasons" is just the word they chose to describe their new "releasing stuff when it's ready" cadence and they (somehow) didn't consider the connotation that other games use where seasonal content is only temporarily available and once it's gone you can't play it anymore. If that's the case, they might want to choose a different term that doesn't immediately freak out gamers who are familiar with that model.

It doesn't make any sense for the ESO devs to put all that work into content (whether story/zone quest content or other systems) only to pull it from the game after a few months. It would diminish the fruits of their time and work, and it wouldn't be consistent with how ESO presents its content (with the possible exception of event quests, but even those come around again every year).

Edit: Okay good, Jessica ninja'd me to essentially confirm that I was right.

On the content side, I personally mostly hope we'll still get a decent amount of new story quests relatively regularly since that's what keeps me most engaged. We already had our story content essentially cut in half with the loss of the Q4 story DLC, so being drip-fed new stories (and not knowing when we'll get something new) could be kind of sad. With that said, I understand that it'll be easier for the writers and other devs not having to crank out new stuff to strict deadlines anymore, so I can't fault them there.

I am looking forward to seeing what they do with new stories in old zones, and how they incorporate characters that we already have a history with. There are a few old story threads that I've always wished they'd pick up again, so hopefully we'll get some tasty morsels there.

TaSheen

It all sounds good - EXCEPT more difficult overland. I'm already struggling with the latest zones. Can't do the zone story bosses lately....

So guess I'll be stuck in base game and early dlcs.

Aashiana

I feel really positive about a lot of these choices! I especially love going back and refreshing the base zones (and some of the DLC zones could use some love) in a variety of ways - new quests, continuation of older quests, refreshing the guilds, something new to do in those zones to take us back to them, and updates of graphics. All really good. It's hard to see new DLCs dropped every year that get a lot of attention at first and then very little except during specific events. For example, N Elsweyr is such a great zone - the story line is particularly great - but then we go on to a new DLC and entirely different lore. I hope that all zones will get consideration for adding some new things here and there - even if it's just a surprising quest or thing you haven't seen before when going back to that zone for antiquities or treasure maps or surveys.

I still want to see more bugs fixed and utility added. Player guilds, particularly traders, could especially use some love in terms of tools, UI improvements, and guild resources such as banks. Some of the trading add-ons are direly needed but continually seem to fight with the base game data structures. An overhaul of this (rather than some new system) would hugely benefit players. Not to mention some way to teach new players about traders. It's really not obvious to anyone who has been in a different type of MMO with centralized trading.

I also echo caution on making overland play too difficult. There are so many players that find the combat system bafflingly complex and just don't understand it. Even after six years and end-game trials I'm still struggling with the complexity of it and keeping up with the constant changes. A little more stability on that front would be helpful so we can just come in and just enjoy the game without forever having to redo sets and skills and passives and parses, and all the other bits that change every few months. A vast majority of the player base is entirely unaware of these things and they will suffer if combat is made any more difficult. Many of them never or rarely venture into dungeons and trials as it is.

I've been saying for a long time that a really good and progressive combat tutorial would be helpful, not just at the start. It needs to cover all aspects of combat mechanics, gear, passives, buffs and debuffs, sets, food and potions, etc. Maybe as you earn new levels, or more experienced players could choose to explore them all at their own pace. A better introduction to grouping composition for dungeons, trial mechanics when you get to that level, etc.

I do really like being less on a schedule for major introductions every year, and having more shorter things with small additions and upgrades to all aspects and zones. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

bantamguar

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Our plans are not to remove content such as quests, stories, and new areas like some other games do when a season is over.

Thank you for clarifying looking forward to a lot of these changes

ESO_Nightingale

YES THIS IS WHAT WE WANT TO SEE YEAH BABY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Leia98

I am curious about how the new dungeons and trials are going to fit into this, like how are they going to be added? Otherwise im very excited, but kinda sad we wont have anything new until April.

KAT0MI

Going with Matt and how he mentioned how players come and go along with the direction of smaller add-ons of DLC, will you ever consider expanding on the Old Life Festival and Necrom with a memorial feature? We have lost many great players over the past few years to cancer and illness and instead of building memorials in guild halls or our personal homes it would be nice to submit their main characters to be entombed in the game for everyone to visit.

Poss

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

We need to seriously address Cyrodiil performance. Our (ambitious) goal is to return it to the concurrency levels we supported in 2014. So, we will be experimenting with a Cyrodiil campaign where all classes will have PvP-specific (and more performant) skills that replace the standard player skills with the expectation that we can support more players per campaign.

I’m excited to see changes to Cyrodiil and potential fixes to performance, however, I’m VERY dubious about the idea to replace skills however vague you are here.

Performance issues aside, the biggest problem with Cyrodiil is heal, shield and mitigation stacking and the fact this is taken advantage of by ballgroups with absolute zero intention of playing the map. So if it’s only class based skills being replaced, won’t that mean vigor and radiating regen are still going to be available?

terrible1fi

Wow amazing news! We’ve needed an overland difficulty revamp for years now, and also group based zones are going to be awesome! There should be zones that are difficult to do on your own, where damage dealers need to group up with healers and tanks to survive in. It’s not only filling a badly needed area of content for the game, but it’s also going to make the game more social, as it should be! It’s an MMO!

Can’t wait to try these updates!

Ella_Mental

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Thank you for all the great questions so far, everyone. We are keeping a list to help inform what we need to answer and explain more later. And we will. One thing we do want to clarify today are the questions about seasonal content. Our plans are not to remove content such as quests, stories, and new areas like some other games do when a season is over.

Thank you very much for posting this additional/clarifying info!!

DirtyDeeds765

This is potentially concerning, as this could be the start of what a noticeable amount of people refer to as "maintenance mode" for ESO with the chapters being removed and "see(ing) named Seasons of three or six months duration with a mix of themed story content, events, store items, dungeons and more" and "some "larger" items that we've been working on for over a year". This basically sounds like the end result will just be ESO without chapter content. This feels like an overall downsizing of effort put into the game.

- A change of schedule and how content is delivered can be good if done correctly and break up some of the "monotony" of year after year play.
- I'm all for base game zones getting a graphical update.
- Improving the feel of combat with special effects upgrades and animations sounds great.
- Trying to get the population and popularity of Cyrodiil back to what it was in 2014 sounds amazing.
- Making overland content more difficult (and rewarding) sounds interesting.
- I love the idea of more guild related content (Dark Brotherhood, Mages Guild, etc. Let's get some new psijic order quests too!)

These changes are nice and necessary, the base game needs qol improvements and improvements in general, but they should be delivered right along side MAJOR CONTENT UPDATES like we have had for years and years now. ESO is one of the biggest and best MMOs in the history of the world, the online of the BEST RPG series in human history, and it shouldn't be one or the other.

@DirtyDeeds765

BoloBoffin

VixxVexx wrote: »

Anyone else getting maintenance mode vibes from reading this? I read this as restructuring/downsizing.

Seasons feels like what Fallout 76 has always been. I don't consider that game in maintenance mode. It is a bit downsizing from what prior release schedules have been, though. (Edited to add: Jessica in another place says content will not be deleted here as seasons change, so that is different from FO76 content releases.)

Personally I also would say that the next natural large zone area to go is Hammerfell, but ESO can't go there until ES6 is out (nor could ZOS say that, I'd think). So, here we are.

XSTRONG

Moving away from Chapters and do seasonal content sounds really good! Looking forward to hear more about the seasons.

And im hoping the seasons will launch at PC and Console at the same time, All Eso players should be able to play the new content when its released and not wait 2 weeks and lose the hype for the new content.

Edit: Will there be a Seasonal server with a server reset after each season?

StihlReign

Shocking news in this letter and most of it good. I'm genuinely surprised and interested in the new direction. The release cadence actually sounds exciting as it feels like a faster response, which will bring the devs in closer alignment with the communication expectations of the community. Time will tell.

This should be interesting. I hope to see group buffs and heal stacking targeted...

We need to seriously address Cyrodiil performance. Our (ambitious) goal is to return it to the concurrency levels we supported in 2014. So, we will be experimenting with a Cyrodiil campaign where all classes will have PvP-specific (and more performant) skills that replace the standard player skills with the expectation that we can support more players per campaign.

So long as this isn't the main campaign, fun times ahead.

tomofhyrule

I think I need to wait and see here, but I'm definitely reading "we're going to just fix textures instead of giving you new stuff" from this.

My biggest question is more as to what types of content we could get in the future. They're pointing out fewer zones (fair, that's a lot of work, but it is amazing to get to see these areas of Tamriel we haven't seen since Arena), and dealing more with existing zones in terms of quests with returning characters (good, but I don't think a single returned character has been better than their original showing due to the tendency to Flanderize them).

But... what about new Dungeons? new Trials? New systems? Are those still on the radar?

The thing I'd absolutely kill for is a new Class right now, just because I love the process of levelling up a new character and playing with all of the new skills. But from this letter, if the big thing they're doing is to remake all of the current class' skills for PvP-centric effects, that definitely doesn't sound like we're getting a new Class then. I do hope we can still eventually see new big things like Classes come in eventually.

I also wonder about how this will be monetized. A lot of these things sound like base game upgrades, which is nice, but that doesn't keep the lights on in the server room. New quests and the like definitely sounds like something that would be included in ESO+ similar to how the traditional Q4 DLC and the new Companions are. People are already a bit salty that ESO+ contains 'less' than it has before (again, I get it since it does contain so much now), but is there anything that will be offerred in the Season that will be a separate purchase, similar to how the current Chapter was always external to ESO+? I think that even then, the only thing that didn't end up moving to DLC was the DLC Classes, which converted to an a la carte purchase otherwise.
Cosmetics? I know we'd love to see more new stuff in the store. And by 'new stuff,' we don't mean 'throw it all into Crown Crates.'

Again, I'm at "wait and see" to decide how good this is going to be. But I will say that since they cancelled the US event, I've been scared that things were going downhill and this didn't exactly make me feel much better.

Arthtur

Well... i cant say im hyped.
A lot of key point is missing in here. How will seasons be monetised? With batlepasses? Or making ESO+ more mandatory?
Like even if its older content ZOS still has to make somehow money. So far it sounds to me "Same price, less content".

While im very interested in harder Overland and Cyro improvements im worried it wont be good. Like u started hybridisation over 2 years ago and still didint finish it. Potions are very limited in choices as those werent updated, Classes received bare minimum of updates for this system. And now u just jump to new stuff? Why cant u finish what u started before starting a new big overhaul like unique skills for pvp?

I love Craglorn but im not hyped looking at the last zones. No matter how hard a boss is, if there is 50 players fighting it, he will just melt. But when u are solo then that same boss will become a pain. Remember all those bosses in Gold Road?
The only way zone like that can work is by making it solo friendly and then adding options like Undaunted Banners for bumping up difficulty. Otherwise it will end in players complaining that its too hard and zone being dead.

And this gear chase... just like the one with Pyrebrand? And then nerfing it to the ground? We have hundreds of sets that are useless. Build diversity is all time low. We dont need "Gear chase", we need more vaiable options to choose from.
Like why would i farm new sets if they will be useless or made useless next patch? Sigh...

While we dont have a lot of details yet, this letter is just too positive.
Nothing about all of the issues this year.
Nothing about all of the new players banned just after starting the game. U could see a post about it few times a week on reddit.
Nothing about all time low player count.
And i could do it few more times but there is no point.

So this letter is just the usual "We listen to your feedback" and "Everything is good" that we get every year.
Well... we will see how it goes next year.

francesinhalover

Reading this is making me so happy thank you :.)

JoeCapricorn

I hope the content updates of base game zones introduces the new bugs that appeared in DLC and chapters.

Now let me tell you what I mean by that, I don't mean "software bugs", I mean the actual buggy wuggy bugs with wiggly antennae and six paws. Fetcherflies in Stonefalls, Dragonflies in many zones, Luna moths in High Rock, Bees EVERYWHERE

Maybe even introduce some new new bugs for variety. This game needs praying mantises. A jumping spider pet with big eyes like Lucas the Spider.

The way this letter is worded it also sounds like this is how we eventually get Sheogorad added to the game, or the western sliver of Morrowind with Blacklight. I'd love to see Northern and Southern Elsweyr connected someday with the cities of Torval and Alabaster included. I know it'd be a weird noodle-shaped zone in between the two but I'm okay with that. But I will admit I will miss the chapter sized zones always appearing in June.

The seasonal content thing could be good, as long as it doesn't exploit the fear of missing out too much. If smaller bite sized stories are added, they should be replayable, unless they are an event specific daily.

It also won't be long before this game is running concurrently with a certain sixth entry in the mainline series. I'm willing to bet there are gonna be tie ins.

SilverIce58

I'm somewhat excited/nervous about what's to come, but I'm here for it. ZOS has always made really great content with their smaller dlcs, so I'm not too worried on them delivering on that aspect.

helloelli

Leia98 wrote: »

I am curious about how the new dungeons and trials are going to fit into this, like how are they going to be added? Otherwise im very excited, but kinda sad we wont have anything new until April.

thissss. these are my main focus while playing the game and would be very disappointed if they werent included in eso anymore. seems finn is still on board so im hopeful. id love to see mini trials back in the rotation with the full trials!

SoulAffliction

While we’re discussing maintenance of the game … Please, please start addressing Class improvements. Two of the three paid classes need some desperate attention! I would take this and PVP improvements over any new content priority!

Stridig

We definitely need more information on these PvP specific class skills. Are skills actually the issue with PvP performance and population caps? I always had a suspicion about the sets that pull people from halfway across the map and all that cheesy crap may have been the issue. I guess I was wrong.

Greeding

As a player that is mostly interested in questing and exploration with the occasional PVP here and there, I'm very interested into seeing how you will handle future zones- but am very glad to here that you are returning to previous zones and working on content there, especially with old characters and stories! Would love to return to old zones and see how they change based on quest completion or even character choices.

I am slightly worried this might mean that ESO is downsizing, but I will be very cautiously optimistic, but either way, I believe this was the right move as the old model of chapters was getting too stale. Looking forward to the future and praying you guys do this game justice and not abandon it.

opethmaniac

DirtyDeeds765 wrote: »

This is potentially concerning, as this could be the start of what a noticeable amount of people refer to as "maintenance mode" for ESO with the chapters being removed and "see(ing) named Seasons of three or six months duration with a mix of themed story content, events, store items, dungeons and more" and "some "larger" items that we've been working on for over a year". This basically sounds like the end result will just be ESO without chapter content. This feels like an overall downsizing of effort put into the game.

Not necessarily. Come to think of it, ESO has had a season model up until now, albeit stretched out over a year. Also, new content from a year's chapter has not been released all at once, but quarterly, just as you would expect from a season model.

If the developers are now freed from this rigid corset of deadlines and the pressure to release, they can finally tackle the problems that have been bothering PVP players for years, e.g. the combat bug, cross-healing, ball groups, etc.

Finedaible

Please focus on improving quality of life so that players don't have to rely on addons so much. The competition is leagues ahead of ESO in this area.

A more streamlined UI with helpful information helps new players understand the game better and makes existing players happy. Less need for addons may even improve performance on players' machines as well.

anadandy

I'm very glad to see that old vanilla zones may be getting some love. There are so many beautiful places in the game that no one sees because New Thing!

I'm also heartened to see that content won't be "vaulted" after a Season is over. That FOMO garbage has killed many games for me.

Cautiously optimistic about Cyrodiil.

DeathStalker

So what I read is,
1. no more big content releases.
2. bigger focus on pvp.
3. make things harder.

If that is the goal, do not be surprised when the population of this game decreases even more. This game's content should be made easier, not harder. PVP should not be a primary focus ever. All I read from this is a disaster in the making. Please stop listening to the vocal minority or you will lose a lot more people.