My thoughts would be that it's more likely ESO gets content now that the new MMO is cancelled? But also feels bad for all the people working on the new MMO since 2018.

ESO isn't going anywhere - it makes too much money for the studio to let it just disappear.

I obviously don't know their reasons, but it seems more than sensible to me to scrap the new IP. New MMOs just aren't what keep high player engagement, "ripened" MMOs do. Diluting their own customer base for a couple launch sales probably won't cover the losses that a slowed development on two fronts would incur. If the innovation is not great enough it just won't have enough pull over the cost sunk in other games for a lot of customers. And the new game shine tends to wear off rather quickly.
Bioware could have had a smooth gig with SWTOR, but that was apparently not good enough. Hell, I even think Funcom would be better off reviving its older games rather than making that Dune game, but at least there is a market for that IP. I don't know if this is necessarily the consequence of this cancellation, but doubling down on ESO seems to be the smart move. I don't really need any more MMOs with arrested development in my collection.

I think a lot of people don't understand how these things work. Studios are managed on their own balance sheets, and projects within the studios are managed on their own outlook. Everything in the art world (movies and TV) seems to be managed roughly the same way. So, no, the people working on this unrevealed MMO that had been in development for SEVEN YEARS won't be moved over to ESO. (At least, not in numbers.)

People also like to reiterate the talking point that ESO has made a lot of money since it was launched, but that doesn't mean that it's financials are self-supporting, or at a run-rate that makes their Microsoft overlords happy. The fact is that we don't know anything about the balance sheet, and I'd give a strong side-eye to anyone who thinks they do.

I objected to the Activision and Blizzard mergers all over social media, and was shouted down as a Sony fanboy. These things *always* happen. When ZOS made their comments about ESO having made $2B over the course of its life at the Amsterdam event, I pointed out that this felt *exactly* like posturing to help with the inevitable post-merger reckoning.

Meanwhile, I remind everyone that Microsoft's revenue and income look like... this...

I came to ESO years ago because another big name MMORPG did the very same thing.
And key people left the company.

C_Inside wrote: »

If you're worried about ESO's future then now's the time to look into the Stop Killing Games campaign that's going on in Europe and sign it if you can. If it passes then ZOS will most likely be required by law to implement an end of life plan for ESO to insure that people that payed for it can still access it at least to some degree.

I can't see this going anywhere. Our world is under pressure from many crises simultaneously. There are simply much bigger fish to fry across the board. Fish that threaten our existence.

Especially for a live services game. A single player game is different because the studio could simply remove the copy protection or the law could enable a 3rd party to do that as happens in the case of abandonware.

The actual key is to make sure one is enjoying the moment. Everything is fleeting. Even our solar system from the eyes of the universe. All good things must come to an end. Be prepared to let go when the time comes because it is inevitable.

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Why did everyone decide that after the cancellation of the new project all the company's efforts would go to eso?

Because if a new game loses the company 200 million after launch it affects all studios that belong to the parent company. The money needs to come from somewhere, especially if it is siphoned out of the revenue of other studios to make new projects happen.

C_Inside wrote: »

Desiato wrote: »

C_Inside wrote: »

If you're worried about ESO's future then now's the time to look into the Stop Killing Games campaign that's going on in Europe and sign it if you can. If it passes then ZOS will most likely be required by law to implement an end of life plan for ESO to insure that people that payed for it can still access it at least to some degree.

I can't see this going anywhere. Our world is under pressure from many crises simultaneously. There are simply much bigger fish to fry across the board. Fish that threaten our existence.

On the contrary, it will go somewhere if it reaches 1 million signatures by the 31st of July. If this happens the petition will be taken to congress and they will be required by international law to review and consider it. Considering it had around 430K signatures just a week ago and is now sitting at 864K, and that big youtubers such as penginz0, Asmongold, The Act Man, SomeOrdinaryGamers, Jackscepticeye (in a community post), Pewdiepie (on Twitter) and even Elon Musk (via a Twitter repost) have shown support, I'm pretty confident that it will reach the threshold. Still, the more people that sign it the better. Some of the signatures will most likely be invalid so ideally a couple of thousand over the 1 million requirement will be ideal.

It wont affect released games only new ones.

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Why did everyone decide that after the cancellation of the new project all the company's efforts would go to eso?

Not sure, if it's a wave of layoffs that doesn't mean people are just being shuffled around to different teams, they're losing their jobs. It doesn't seem like they're adding more developers back to ESO or anything.

Microsoft Gaming as a whole is falling apart and failing miserably.

As long as ZOS falls under its umbrella, they will be similarly affected as well.

😢

I would be devastated if ESO ends.

Desiato wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Why did everyone decide that after the cancellation of the new project all the company's efforts would go to eso?

Wishful thinking. I don't think ESO is going anywhere, but there's no reason to think this will result in a greater investment in it.

For some reason many people choose not to see what is right in front of them. ESO has already started transitioning to a new phase. It began last year when they internally decided there wouldn't be a chapter this year.

It wasn't simply a rebranding of the annual major dlc. It is substantially different than a chapter.

They made that decision solely based on factors related to eso because if they thought a chapter would be worth developing, they would have done so, regardless of the needs of another project.

I'd argue it started three years ago when they changed release cadence and the nature of the content (moving more toward extensible, system-based content rather than one-off hand-made stuff). It's what you would call the 'long tail'. For sure they will continue to run the game for ages to come but also for sure the nature of what is released and how it is sold will be very different from the past.

By this point, most smaller companies would sell off the IP and game to another conglomerate who would basically put it on life support for minimal effort and try to milk it dry for the remainder of the dedicated player base. But in this case the IP is far too valuable and tied to a much larger franchise. So it makes much more sense for them to shift toward a system that can be run by a skeleton crew and allows for smaller patches that can extend already existing systems. My suspicions were that they were moving ESO in this direction exactly so that it could mostly auto-pilot while they focused on the next big thing. But with that next big thing gone I'm wondering exactly what will happen. Will they pivot and redouble their efforts into ESO? Or will they stay steady on course with what they have and transition into a future of mostly automated updates? To me as an outsider, either option seems viable right now. It will be interesting to see either way, I suppose.

It's a bit sad to see Matt go. He's clearly been the soul of the projects they've worked on since DAoC. But my guess is that he's looking for new challenges and projects. No one in a creative job wants to stay stuck forever on the grind of a single project.

This game will be just as fine as all the other top MMOs on the market. Established MMOs don't go anywhere anymore. People come and go, layoffs happen, projects get canceled, money gets moved back and forth, the MMOs go on. It goes for Square Enix, it goes for Blizzard, it goes for Zenimax. All of those MMOs have been through the same and worse, all of them are still kicking.

Launching new MMOs - that's the actual uncertainty nowadays. Pretty much all the releases that happened in the past years failed. So if anything, it was the other ongoing project that was more worrying. I guess... not anymore. Not that it's a good thing. Those are years worth of work and money that just went poof. And I doubt that it will directly lead to anything positive for ESO. Hopefully nothing too negative.

It's not dying though. I'm 100% certain of that. And the monetization (which is what people usually stress over) has already been kind of rock bottom for a while now. Doubt it's getting much worse.

Not worried. ESO and the Elder Scrolls IP prints money. Worst case is downsizing but the game will live on as long as they are bringing in new players. ES6 and future Elder Scrolls games will create new interest in ESO.

i hope they finally make some big needed changes.