My guess would be two seasons spread fairly evenly throughout the year. They said some seasons might be three months, or six months long, and since this year is a transition year, I would guess they would cycle into shorter seasons next year.

Regardless of how many seasons we get in any given year, I'm concerned about the content of those seasons. That, and the price point.

It's too early to make a call.

We do know that the Dark Brotherhood is coming next from the little hint they gave us at the end, but I can't imagine that being able to support more than a single quarter worth of content. Sure, there are a lot of people who like the less legal guilds (and a DB Season would be a perfect time to bring in the murderhobo evil - and possibly also vampiric - Companion people have been waiting for), but we also know that there are a lot of people who prefer the Lawful Good RP, as seen in the number of complaints every time there is a Crime-related event.

I also imagine that 2026 would need to have a tentpole feature at some point, and considering that 2025's is free (Subclassing) and that there are already gripes about the value:price ratio of the 2025 Season Pass, it'd be in ZOS's best interest if 2026's tentpole is 1) only available with the pass and 2) heavily desired by a large portion of the fanbase. I could see (more like "I am really really hoping for") a new Class being one of the few things to work out here - with Subclassing, they wouldn't need to give any more character slots since we could use those lines on existing characters, and all DLC Classes so far have only been available with the respective Chapter or a la carte from the Crown Store.

Also, since this is a transition year and they want to show off the new scheme, I could totally see them offerring a Season which only lasts one quarter (likely the DB) and another that lasts two quarters (probably whatever supports the tentpole feature). I don't expect another year-long season for quite a while since they seem to be walking away from that.

What I do expect is that they will still stick to 4 updates a year. I know that they implied that the new cadence would allow them to be irregular, but let's face it: the Crown Crate stuff is included in the patch right before a new set drops, and I don't think any of us think they'd stop doing Crown Crates for any reason. As for shorter patch cycles, I suppose it's a possibility... but they've only made patches longer - remember before Stadia we used to get weekly incrementals and now it's only down to a maintenance every other week (and only about half of those maintenances are incremental patches in the first place).

tomofhyrule wrote: »

We do know that the Dark Brotherhood is coming next from the little hint they gave us at the end, but I can't imagine that being able to support more than a single quarter worth of content.

Maybe they'll generally make a crime-focused year, also including the Thieves Guild. They might also add some releases that are roughly Thieves Guild or DB themed, but might also be interesting for players with no interest in them directly - like a ToT deck or a trial. We don't know yet what they plan for us, of course; but I think if one wants it, it's easy to do a lot of different things just using those themes.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

a DB Season would be a perfect time to bring in the murderhobo evil - and possibly also vampiric - Companion people have been waiting for

I don't mind "evil", but I really hope for a well-written one (especially a vampire could get such an interesting backstory). "Evil just for the sake of evil" isn't exactly interesting to me. Of course, some people might love just that - or not care much about the character background at all, as long as they can murder and steal without getting any negative comments.

Hopefully just one per year, to avoid any confusion.

I also feel they should rename the 'pass' part of the content pass, as a pass(season pass) has a bad name in gaming. And what they are selling isn't a season pass, it is a pass for the entire year's content. Maybe something like: "Content year 2025" "Content year 2026". That would make it clear to people they are buying all the content for that specific year, and avoids any confusion and negativity.

What does kinda bum me out is them releasing one story in multiple parts again, this is also what annoyed me with the year-long stories they used to release. In my opinion stories should always be released in one part. Now by the time the event and second part of the story is released, I will no longer have a clue about what is going on and who is who in the story. Basically rendering the entire story moot/meaningless.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

It's too early to make a call.

Yep.
ZOS stated in the ESO Direct stream/video that content releases won't all be like 2025, but beyond that, so far, all they've said is that they are going to vary from release to release in terms of when (how often) and how much.

I think there will be at least two, because they said the point was to move away from year long stories and trying to fit what the developers wanted to do into a fixed update schedule and allow them to release more small stuff.

For the same reason I'm sceptical it will directly match with financial quarters (unless that was the compromise with the business side of the team, who would probably prefer a predictable, routine payment schedule). I'm not saying we're going to get something every month or whatever, but I think it will be more varied than it has been for the past few years.

LunaFlora wrote: »

I don't see much of a point in voting on this/i have no idea what i think the amount of seasons will be next year.

Yeah, that's fair. At this point, nobody in the community should have knowledge about next year's content releases, aside from whatever ZOS publicly announces or hints at.

This poll is more of a "what do you think will happen" or "what would you like to happen" poll — ultimately it's meaningless, but it's interesting seeing what the community currently thinks about next year's content with so little information to go off of.

More than 0 and less than 5. Sorry, but I have no real clue, other than there being 4 updates each year. (I assume there will still be quarterly updates, anyway.) As to how those updates will be split up or connected with each other, or possibly even connected with updates for 2027, who can say?