Is ZOS shooting itself in the foot?

Suddwrath

According to ZOS' website, the studio is currently "hard at work on multiple brand-new ZENIMAX ONLINE STUDIOS products across many different platforms".

Given the current state of ESO, do you think ZOS is shooting itself in the foot by working on multiple new products rather than focusing its resources on fixing the studio's current product? Personally, I don't think the new products would perform that well if they're released when ESO is experiencing so many performance issues and bugs since players would be hesitant to play the new game given how ZOS handled ESO.

Thoughts?

valeriiya

It shows they haven't learned any lessons.

Callous2208

I suppose it's good to know this now. Wouldn't want to get my hopes up that the upcoming year will be full of meaningful updates. More half ass empty zones, grinding dailies and crowns store showcases! Who needs content when there are mount reskins to be had!

kathandira

I hate use it as a comparison, because it is cliche to do so. But Blizzard is always working on several projects, all the while WoW could use improvements all the time, but the game survives.

I think ZOS is fine working on other projects, so long as they still have a dedicated ESO team.

Juhasow

Multiple brand-new crown store products...

idk

It really should not be considered an issue unless we want to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Zos, and pretty much every company that has made a game, hires a lot of talent when creating a new game and drops move of them once the game releases. Those that work directly on ESO are very unlikely to have a big hand in this new game unless they are to be replaced on the ESO project Those like Matt Firor are merely management and are not really getting their hands dirty anymore.

Kiralyn2000

Because it's smart for a company to only have one product, and never have anything else in the works. /eyeroll

Elsonso

Meh. We already know they are working on Game 2. I expect that will be the new studio flagship pretty quickly, drawing resources and funding from other parts of the studio, if it has not already started.

Haashhtaag

kathandira wrote: »

I hate use it as a comparison, because it is cliche to do so. But Blizzard is always working on several projects, all the while WoW could use improvements all the time, but the game survives.

I think ZOS is fine working on other projects, so long as they still have a dedicated ESO team.

Compare staff sizes of each company. It’s not black and white. Blizzard has a much larger staff than ZOS so they can afford to move resources from one project to another where ZOS smaller staff is limited.

maboleth

Perfectly normal for a team to make a project, release it and while keeping it steady, some of its resources are being shifted into new, unreleased things.

Few realize that all projects complement each other. People cursed Frontier Developers that they have abandoned Elite Dangerous because they hired new and shifted old crew into new projects. Stories about doomed days of ED surfaced. In reality, the company is now stronger than ever and ED has just seen the best updates for free yet.
Without these side projects like Jurassic Park & Planet Coaster, the company wouldn't have the resources for ED. ZOS is much bigger company, but generally, you can't have the whole company with hundreds of employees just maintaining the released game and making new DLCs.

So no, ZOS is seeing ESO as a stable project with growing and continuous fan base. Updates and new content are regular (and in my opinion, new content every 3 months is hectic), no slowing down at all. Dedicated people are there. But they also have to invest into other things.

Rohamad_Ali

Maybe you're not aware just how rich ZoS is .

Numerikuu

I expect multiple lootbox and microtransaction-filled mobile games.

Vhozek

They've always had like 5 devs working on ESO so it's not like they can't distribute the other 5 devs to another project. Wait, you mean to tell me there are more than 5 devs? But what about all the bugs that are still in the game? There's legit year old bugs in the game. I haven't played in like 6 months and I just found all of them again.

Vhozek

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

Because it's smart for a company to only have one product, and never have anything else in the works. /eyeroll

Yeah! Take that, League of Legends. Silly Riot Games... or should I say, Riot Game.

Delsanab14_ESO

They could be mobile games for all we know.

maboleth

Vhozek wrote: »

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

Because it's smart for a company to only have one product, and never have anything else in the works. /eyeroll

Yeah! Take that, League of Legends. Silly Riot Games... or should I say, Riot Game.

They do have side projects.
They organize ultra large esport tournaments.

Totally different league than ZOS. The only thing common is both are making video games.

I understand your concern about our beloved ESO, but there's nothing to be worried about.

Onefrkncrzypope

They have had that up on their website for ages bruh. The only thing that will kill eso is ESO 2

eso_lags

Zos put me in a terrible position. They made a game that i love and have had so much fun playing.. Then they take my favorite part of that game, pvp, and let it crumble. They ignore major issues, say they are aware that they are lacking when it comes to communication, and allow game performance to only get worse every update. So while i would love to play another zos game i would defiantly think long about it first. And unless it was ESO 2 , i really dont think i would give it a chance.

Tandor

The fact that "given the current state of ESO" ZOS are investing in multiple other projects as well as sticking to the additional content schedule for ESO demonstrates how little grasp on the situation the doomsayers and haters have.

I fully recognise that some players have genuine grievances, but the other complainers really need to move on. If nothing else, it's a massive tribute to both ZOS and ESO that they can't bring themselves to do so.

Crafts_Many_Boxes

Haashhtaag wrote: »

kathandira wrote: »

I hate use it as a comparison, because it is cliche to do so. But Blizzard is always working on several projects, all the while WoW could use improvements all the time, but the game survives.

I think ZOS is fine working on other projects, so long as they still have a dedicated ESO team.

Compare staff sizes of each company. It’s not black and white. Blizzard has a much larger staff than ZOS so they can afford to move resources from one project to another where ZOS smaller staff is limited.

Just to add to this, there was once a studio called Trion Worlds. They created Rift, which was touted as the "WoW Killer" of its time. It was popular, but then the content updates started getting less and less good / polished while the cash shop expanded in scope and became more and more P2W.

Turns out Trion had been funneling all of their money into other projects, all of which tanked almost immediately on release (except Trove). Over the course of 2-3 years, Rift's team went from a few hundred to a few dozen, and it showed.

With virtually no money left and their flagship MMO down to ~500 regular players, Trion Worlds was officially bought out by Gamigo back in November to avoid declaring bankruptcy outright. But make no mistake, they went bankrupt.

Point being, funneling all of your money from a strong game with potential into cash-grabby side projects with limited depth and scope can come back to bite you. I hope that's not what ZOS is doing now.

Odovacar

ESO2 comes and all our hard work will be shelved for a new adventure...hmmm a little mixed on how I'll feel when this day actually comes... Let us carry 1 character with us please, lol.

qbit

No this game eso has ran its useful life. Any additional revenue is just gravy. They’re in business to make money. No one cares about the game. It’s just a job. Five days a week.

Salvas_Aren

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

Because it's smart for a company to only have one product, and never have anything else in the works. /eyeroll

Its wise to spread their efforts in f*in up games over several games.

Glurin

Gotta love this nebulous "fix the game" attitude people have around here.

"ZoS should stop working on new projects and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop making new content and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop having in game events and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop making money and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop eating lunch and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop letting their employees sleep and fix the game."

I'm not even sure you guys know what that means anymore.

Tandor

Odovacar wrote: »

ESO2 comes and all our hard work will be shelved for a new adventure...hmmm a little mixed on how I'll feel when this day actually comes... Let us carry 1 character with us please, lol.

Not if they're different games.

EQ was launched in 1999, EQ2 in 2004. Both are still running perfectly satisfactorily with regular additional content into 2019 and very likely beyond. Playing one does not preclude also playing the other.

Delsanab14_ESO

Glurin wrote: »

Gotta love this nebulous "fix the game" attitude people have around here.

"ZoS should stop working on new projects and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop making new content and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop having in game events and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop making money and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop eating lunch and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop letting their employees sleep and fix the game."

I'm not even sure you guys know what that means anymore.

"ZoS should have fixed the game years ago, bugs from beta are still here as are memory leaks".

xaraan

We'll see.

I mean, I think they could certainly start work on new projects and keep up with ESO - the shortcomings of ESO I don't think are to blame for that b/c they haven't been making the improvements needed quickly enough for much longer than they've started talking new projects.

The biggest issue is I'm sure these are going to be microtransaction driven projects. Every company is pushing to milk consumers for all they are worth instead of investing in long term consumer satisfaction. So can't say I'm excited for whatever they are working on whether they get ESO working better or not.

NordSwordnBoard

Given the current state of ESO sales, I think they feel emboldened to do as they please.

Juhasow

Glurin wrote: »

Gotta love this nebulous "fix the game" attitude people have around here.

"ZoS should stop working on new projects and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop making new content and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop having in game events and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop making money and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop eating lunch and fix the game."

"ZoS should stop letting their employees sleep and fix the game."

I'm not even sure you guys know what that means anymore.

What about "Zos should fix the game" ?

Starlight_Knight

I used to play Perfect word. it was extremely pay to win, and although they had many other titles that appealed to me i would never even conciser downloading them because there main flagship game was a pay to win nightmare..

Although ZOS isnt as bad as that, i would still be hesitant in approaching a new title from them, For reasons I've waffled on about in many other posts. Mainly Server degeneration and lag worse every update, and sense of disconnection from the combat team, and zos communication.

Odovacar

Tandor wrote: »

Odovacar wrote: »

ESO2 comes and all our hard work will be shelved for a new adventure...hmmm a little mixed on how I'll feel when this day actually comes... Let us carry 1 character with us please, lol.

Not if they're different games.

EQ was launched in 1999, EQ2 in 2004. Both are still running perfectly satisfactorily with regular additional content into 2019 and very likely beyond. Playing one does not preclude also playing the other.

Very nice!